Fate Found a Home
by kqshipalot
Summary: Bash lost everything at once. Mary came to give him the chances he thought he would never have. Modern AU
1. First Encounters

**I blame this entirely on Torrance and his "Mary and doughnut" tweet. And because I like giving Bash angst (though not the way the Reign writers do). Ok, maybe I don't blame Torrance entirely. 90% of it is his fault. 10% is to the television studios and the renewal/cancellations because now I have Mary working at a television network studio. This is a short intro. And I'll be changing the cover photo once I figure out how (unless someone wants to offer?)**

** Disclaimer: I do not own Reign or the characters and all mistakes are mine.**

Sebastian "Bash" de Poitiers had lost it all at once. His father had died, his stepmother had moved the family away, and his real mother, Diane, was back in her home country of France. Ms. De Poitiers had left to find a better life for her and her son by getting a job and saving money to bring them over. Unfortunately, the little money they had was only enough for her. With his father gone (Bash was the result of an affair), they lost out on his help. His wife Catherine wanted nothing to do with him and so, two years ago, she had taken her four children back to Italy where she had been born and raised. That left Bash to find his way in the world. And that world currently meant the streets of San Diego, California.

The only thing he was truly grateful for was the lack of winter in such a city. It could have been worse. He could have ended up on the streets of Chicago.

There were times when Bash was able to look back and decide his current situation was for the best. Diane had been in France for four years, his father dead for nearly three. All that would have been left was a stepmother (if she could be called that) that would have thrown him out eventually. Better he had left because the Valois family was moving, and not because he had been kicked out (though he wasn't entirely sure if that would have been legal, even if he was 20 at the time). He could thank Catherine for telling him four months in advance that she was moving the family. At least he left with a backpack on his shoulders.

The backpack may have only fit so much but he'd saved up $2,000 at that time and it worked for a while. He made a deal with a motel manager. He would work for him and handle tenants causing problems, while getting a reduced rate. That only worked until his money started to run out. Now his backpack only had some papers, a few clothes, and a picture of his mother.

He had kept his car but couldn't drive it. The cost of gas and insurance, mixed with any repairs it would eventually need, left him only the option to use it as a room. He thought about selling it, but it was an older car that he could sell for $5,000 at the most. Once that money was gone, he would have nowhere to sleep for however many more years he was on the street. So now his days consisted of sleeping in a car, washing his face and brushing his teeth in the bathroom of a gas station (with the occasional shave), and relying on the pity from the owner of the pit stop who would give him something to eat for breakfast. And Bash hated the pity. Which is why he would just get breakfast from that place, but sometimes that would be his only meal.

At least being in a cheap motel had given him some work to do. Nobody was in any condition to hire a street kid who hadn't been working for two years. He was nearly 23 and spent most of his days wondering where life was taking him, but never finding anywhere to work or live. Occasionally he would stop by the soup kitchen, but that was only if he had nowhere else to eat.

His cousin Isabel lived a few states away but she had just enough money to take care of herself, much less a cousin and the baby she was pregnant with. Besides, he had no way to get there. Neither had the money for a plane ride and she had no car to come and get him.

Maybe the job fair downtown would provide some hope. His resume had been in a folder since he had left home, never getting the chance to take it out before being turned away. Not that there was much to see on it anyway.

The day was starting to warm up, which Bash took as a sign that it was late morning. People were walking to work or school, and brushing past him without a second glance. Though in a big city like this, who would?

That's when he saw her. A girl walking down the street. There were plenty of girls walking around him, but there was something about this particular one. He could only see her from the back, but she was petite and well-dressed. The April weather was known for being one of the best times in the city but she was still in dress pants and a long-sleeved blouse.

She stopped walking and Bash looked to where her eyes went.

A television network studio.

He furrowed his brow. Was that where she worked? He could see her from the side and she looked like she was his age, possibly younger. Of course, nobody else would know that with the days-old facial hair Bash had been growing. It was hard to shave when all you could afford were cheap razors that so easily cut you.

She was on the phone too. Whoever this girl was, she was busy. He was getting close enough to hear her.

"I can be there after my meeting. How long will it take?" She looked completely exhausted. "Ok, thank you." She hung up.

So she did work at the television studio.

But she didn't cross the street. She made another call.

"Hi, may I speak to Mr. Stuart please? Thank you...Hi! I have to go to the publishing company after my meeting but what do you say about lunch tomorrow?.." The girl seemed happier in this conversation. "Perfect! I love you too. Bye."

Boyfriend. She had no ring on her left hand to suggest a fiancee or husband.

Bash was about to walk past her when she started to text as she was crossing the street. She was the only one not to notice the traffic headed her way.

Was nobody going to tell her?

He looked back to find a car going faster than it should. And the driver wasn't about to obey the pedestrian law, even if the girl was crossing when she wasn't supposed to.

Bash ran out on the street and grabbed the girl before the car drove by, honking. She screamed from surprise right as it did. Bash looked at the license plate. He may not have worked for a long time, but he was always good with numbers and statistics. It was a gift.

He and the girl were safe on the sidewalk. Her phone hasn't been so fortunate.

She stared at Bash, wide-eyed and panicked. He wasn't sure if it was due to the fate of her phone or her near-death experience.

"I'm sorry for grabbing you like that ma'am, but you would have been hit otherwise," Bash apologized as he looked her over. She wasn't hurt.

"No, I should be the one saying sorry. I wasn't looking and I nearly got you killed too."

Bash wanted to laugh. A few years from now, he would still be on the streets and looking back, death might have been a relief from that fate.

"Are you all right?" he asked her as they stood up.

She looked at him for the first time since he'd stopped her from being roadkill. All it took was one look into her brown eyes and he knew life was always going to be unfair.

But fate had other plans for Sebastian de Poitiers and Mary Stuart.

**Confusing? Perhaps. More about Bash's backstory in later chapters. Reviews are candy! Hope I didn't mess up on anything. I wrote this in two hours lol. I have finals in 2 weeks and I start another fanfic. What is my life?... =D**


	2. Waiting on the World to Change

**For those wondering how Mary working at a studio will come into play- second sentence of story summary plus a little hint about one of Bash's talents at the end of the first chapter =). I'm not from San Diego so I apologize for any mistakes or ignorance on my part. Glad you liked it though! In case nobody could tell, it was her father she was on the phone with. Though I think the "Stuart" part gave that away lol. **

**I do not own Reign or the characters. Just giving them angst before they find their happiness.**

** BTW, do you guys mind song titles for chapter titles? Makes it easier for me to remember which chapter is about what. =) And like WSOTT, I'll put a link to the playlist on my profile page. **

_We just feel like we don't have the means __  
__To rise above and beat it _

Waiting on the World to Change- John Mayer

The girl looked away and brushed off her pants. "Well, I um, I should get going before I'm late for work. Thank you so much, again."

"What about your phone?" he asked her as she stood up.

"I'll get another one," she held onto her purse. "Thank you for what you did back there. Have a good day!"

It was a shame her phone had broken into a million pieces. He had the license plate number of the driver etched into his brain. Bash hoped he would come across that car again just so he could smash the windows- the man should never have been given a license, let alone a car.

The girl made it across the street safely (she waited for the pedestrian light then crossed with a dozen other people). After making sure she got into the building safely, Bash headed the other way. He knew he smelled badly. It was difficult to bathe on the weekends, especially when the public school was closed and he had no access to the locker room showers. He didn't go there often anyway. From the time it was opened until it was closed, there was usually someone there. There was only a one half hour block where everyone was at lunch or in class that gave Bash time to sneak in without being noticed. And that was only two days a week.

Too bad the owner of the gas station store wasn't working the front on Mondays. Mr. Castleroy had caught Bash trying to take a few items shortly after he was out of the motel. Now, the man gave Bash a few supplies every once in a while. He couldn't give him a job. There was a difference between giving someone $10 worth of supplies every once in a while and paying an employee an hourly salary of $8 (which is what he gave to the only three employees he had).

But still, he went.

To his relief, Aylee was at the front. She was a nice girl, small and blonde and living in her own bubble of happiness.

"Bash!" She smiled at him. "What can we help you with?"

"Is Castleroy in the back?" Bash kept his fingers crossed. Nobody knew that their boss was handing out supplies to a homeless kid. The older man was pretty slick in taking an occasional toothpaste from the storage unit in the back. His employees thought Bash was "just a friend with bad fashion taste" (Castleroy's words to them, not Bash's).

"No, he's not in today. We have inventory on Thursday so he will definitely be in then. Should I tell him to give you a call?"

"No, my phone isn't working properly," Bash lied. He'd given that up after the Valois family left. He didn't need a phone bill every month and he had no money for a disposable one.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help," Aylee apologized. "But come back on Thursday and you two can talk."

He thanked her and left. The next two days were spent doing what he normally did- wandering the streets, drinking water from the sinks in mall bathrooms, and sleeping in his car that he had kept. It was parked in a secluded area, away from the noise and out of the bright sunlight. Bash had always hated his car until he was on the street. It was old, always needing repairs, but it was now the one place he could sleep in. He never turned the key into the ignition. It was low on gas and damaged. He could have sold it but nobody would have wanted it, and now he would never give it up.

By Thursday, Bash was getting anxious. He went back to the gas station store right after he woke up.

Aylee was switching the front sign from closed to open when Bash walked up.

"He's in the back," she said before he even opened his mouth.

"Thank you Aylee." Bash walked in and went to the storage room.

Castleroy was with a younger man Bash knew by the name of Leith, calling out box numbers as the boy wrote them down on a clipboard.

Seeing Castleroy always brought back memories of their first meeting.

_August 2012_

_ Bash had just left left the motel, unable to afford it anymore. It had been the place where he'd spent New Years and Christmas, since Catherine and the kids had left mid-December. Being out in the sun for two days straight had left him with heat rash. His supplies were running low. By midday, he had found a gas station that was nearly empty (unusual, what with so many tourists)._

_ He smiled at the older man at the front, then searched each aisle carefully. The prices were reasonable, but some of the snacks were out of his price range. _

_ Bash made some calculations in his head. He needed sun protection, a new toothbrush (he hadn't gotten a new one when he left the Valois home), and something to drink. His throat was dry as hell. _

_ He carefully unzipped his backpack and looked back to the man at the front. He was busy talking to another customer. _

_ This was going to be his first time stealing anything. _

_ Bash reached for some gum, toothpaste, toothbrush, and a bag of chips. He'd pay for the water bottle and a hot dog. _

_ He was pretty proud of himself for being subtle._

_ At least, he thought he had been._

_ He had just closed the door to the fridge when he was tugged by his backpack. _

_ "So is it just the water bottle you wanted or did you forget to carry the other items too?" he heard a man's voice._

_ "I was just getting a water bottle," Bash got nervous. Maybe the man was bluffing. Yes. That had to be it. _

_ "So those potato chips?"_

_ "They were mine," he turned around. It was the same man from the front counter. _

_ "I see..." he looked Bash up and down. "You don't look like you need to steal anything. Should I call the police?"_

_ Bash sighed in defeat. He took out everything that he had put into his backpack and handed them over. _

_ "What's your name kid?"_

_ "Bash." If he didn't tell this man the truth, he certainly would have to tell the police. _

_ "I'm Mr. Castleroy and this is my store. So I ask again, why are you trying to steal from it?"_

_ "It's a long story Mr. Castleroy. I promise it won't happen again. I'm sorry," Bash nearly walked out. _

_ "I have time."_

"Leith, why don't you take this," Castleroy handed the boy a box, "and put them on the shelves while I talk to Bash?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Castleroy." Leith headed to the door where Bash was standing. "Hey Bash. Good to see you."

"Hey Leith," Bash responded back.

Once Leith was out in the front, Bash walked up to Castleroy. "I hate asking you for favors, but I need a few things."

Castleroy was writing on the boxes with a sharpie. "Yes, I would say the same thing." He stopped to look at Bash's puzzled expression. "No offense kid, but you smell like shit."

"Yes, that does tend to happen when you spend your days and nights on the street with no place to bathe."

"What do you need?"

"I've been using the same toothbrush for a year and I've been out of toothpaste since Monday. I've been using sink water in the day since and I used the rain water on Tuesday night."

"I'll see what I can do."

"So what do you tell your employees about my occasional visits where I come and buy nothing?"

"I told them that you're a good friend, much younger than I am, who's going through a really tough divorce."

"I'm not even 23 yet and I'm already getting a divorce?"

"Those kids don't know how old you are. I told them you were in your late 20s."

"They bought that?"

"I'm their boss. They'll buy whatever I have to say as long as I'm not asking them to commit a crime. You forget that I sign their paychecks."

"Speaking of paychecks, can I ask you something?"

Castleroy nodded.

"What is it about me where people take one look and show me out the door, claiming they're no longer hiring? Besides the obvious lack of dress shirts."

"How's your resume?"

"I left home with 10 copies and now I walk around every day with those same 10 copies in my folder. They don't even let me speak."

"Have you ever spoken to those services the city offers? I think they help people like you find work and whatever else you need."

"I don't need their damn pity. They help recovering drug addicts and ex-convicts find work, not some homeless kid who at least has a car to sleep in. I can't think of anyone who would want to help me. I mean, you have, of course. But you're the only one."

"For someone who claims to hate getting pity and sympathy, you sure throw a good pity party for yourself. Listen son, I'm not in your situation so I can't offer you advice. But I will suggest something. I know you hate going, but visit the soup kitchen occasionally. There's no shame in asking for help and that's what the volunteers are there for. And free food is available so it's a win-win situation. Think you can do that?"

Bash grumbled something incoherent.

"Speak up, I didn't catch that."

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now, go out back and take off your shirt. I'm going to hose you down before my employees start asking question about your body odor." He handed Bash a new toothbrush and toothpaste.

Bash was back walking the streets 10 minutes after Castleroy hosed him down with very cold water and then let him use the bathroom to brush his teeth. The sun was coming out and warming him up, but that didn't stop him from walking down the streets shivering.

Soup kitchens. Their food was decent 50% of the time.

Bash want to his favorite park. It was where he went whenever he needed time to think. He had probably of that with no job and no place to live, but there was just something about going to a quiet park, away from the noise (minus a few occasional car honks). There was usually an empty bench he could sit on.

He looked into his backpack. The straps were torn and wearing out, but it was where he kept what few belongings he had left. It held his notebook, his pens that had run out of ink several months ago, his folder of resumes, the items Mr. Castleroy had given him, and even another shirt.

Bash had sold a few prized possessions like his ipod and laptop to pay for the motel rent. But the money ran out when he bought items he needed instead of stealing them, and when the motel owner decided to no longer give Bash a discount for his services.

_That ended up working well_, Bash thought dryly. Just that morning he had poked a hole in a pringles case and taken a few chips from the grocery store.

He hated stealing, especially since his mother had taught him better, but it was either that or starving.

Or going to the other side of the city to the soup kitchen.

Bash was in an area of San Diego where homeless people were less common than other areas. There were a few of course, but not as many as there several miles away. And that's where the soup kitchen was.

He looked at his notebook. In the beginning, he had used it to balance his money and write down what he needed. After he had to leave the motel, he wrote down observations he had made doing people watching and living outside. The last entry was October 31st, and it was now April 17th. The entry was just about the costumes he'd seen and remembering his two little brothers (Henry and Charles) that would always dress up for Halloween.

He wondered if his brothers ever asked about where he was now.

_Dear Charles and Henry (and Francis if you're reading this): I live on the streets of San Diego and I get really hungry and dirty. Your mother would have a heart attack if she came across me as a stranger. Sincerely, your illegitimate older half-brother._

Oh yes. That would make quite the letter.

"Go away, I'm trying to think," Bash whispered to the two pigeons that were cornering him. "I have just as much food as you."

He shook his head. His life had come to the point where he was talking to pigeons. It was only a matter of time now until somebody caught him and called him crazy.

The pigeons didn't leave.

"Fine, take the damn the bench. See if I care," Bash told them before getting up and looking for another place to sit.

There was nowhere else to sit by himself.

_Do people not have anything better to do on a Thursday morning? Work? School?_

Of course, he had nothing better to do either but he had a very good reason for that. The couples sitting down and making out? Not so much.

He went back to the streets. There was a McDonalds not far from where he was and he really needed to use the bathroom. Bash was more respectful about property than finding some ghetto area to urinate in. McDonalds wouldn't be crowded at this time. That meant no stares, no whispers, and no comments.

Plus, his feet were hurting like hell thanks to the blisters. The bottom of his shoes were wearing off and his socks had holes in them.

But he made it to McDonalds and was out of there in less than five minutes, three of which were spent pining over the look of a milkshake and drawing stares from the people around him.

There was nowhere to go for lunch. He was about to walk past the park when something, or rather _someone_, caught his eye.

The girl with long brown hair.

The girl who almost got hit by a car. The one who loved someone named Mr. Stuart.

She was sitting on a bench (how did she manage to get one?), reading the paper and eating a doughnut. Balancing that Starbucks drink on her lap might not have been the most clever idea. Even with a lid on it, it was going to spill with her not holding onto it. Bash thought to tell her but decided not to. She could have him arrested if she thought he was following her. Of course, that would be if she had remembered what he looked like. And in a big city like this, there were more memorable people to keep in your mind.

Bash's predictions about her drink came true. It spilled all over her skirt and all over the newspaper she was reading.

He couldn't hear what she was saying but she got stood up, looking upset. Then she dropped her doughnut and he could have sworn that made her even more frustrated than she already was. If only she'd had a napkin on hand.

What she upset about losing her lunch or the mess on her clothes? He couldn't say.

Bash walked away, smiling. He could have really used a new pen today.

Friday passed and Saturday was a new day. Bash was going to choose that day to go to the soup kitchen. He didn't want to, but something in his head was telling him to. It was almost as if he felt a pull towards it.

If he started walking right now, he could be there for lunch.

He fell back asleep instead.

When he finally woke up again, he put the keys into the ignition to turn on the car and check the time. 2:05.

_Well shit._

Bash stood up, rubbing his neck. Sleeping in a car didn't allow for the most comfortable positions to sleep in, but his neck was never _this_ sore. Then again, he had never slept for half the day during the past few years.

He estimated the time. The soup kitchen was usually open for dinner from 6:00-7:00. He had to get going.

Bash got out of the car and stretched. It was a warm day but he knew he was going to be begging for cooler weather when he started walking.

He was sweating about an hour into his walk. There wasn't much shade where he was and the sun was burning his skin. He cursed himself for not asking Castleroy to give him some sunscreen. Now he would just look like a lobster.

Bash knew the streets of San Diego very well. He could have been a cab driver.

That is, if he hadn't been shown the door after one look.

He smiled to himself. If only there was a way he could prove himself. Then he could go to all the places that had refused him and shove his "employee of the month" award in their faces (there was somewhere else he would rather shove it, but that would be highly inappropriate of him).

"Someday," he said as quietly as he could.

He continued on his way. He got to the soup kitchen a few hours later. Their clock inside read 6:14 and it was already a madhouse.

He looked at the line.

There was one volunteer he spotted right away.

Well, wasn't life just a heartless bitch.

**End of Chapter 2. Hope the formatting didn't screw up lol. Reviews for this fine Easter?**

** If you celebrate Easter- HAPPY EASTER!**


	3. Fly Away

**A/N: So, as we're all aware of by now, yesterday the Mash fandom got burned. Not "ouch" burned. More like "stick you in the oven then put you on a stick over a bonfire to cook like hot dogs" burned. I wasn't going to do this chapter but I'm adding it. It's Mary's POV from the time Bash saved her until a few days after. It might also give more hints as to how Mary is going to end up helping Bash, and how he will help her. And I know nothing about the TV business apart from what I read. Just having fun. And sorry for the lack of Bash in this chapter.**

** And everyone, it's a Mash story. Same with WSOTT. They're my Reign OTP and that's not about to change.**

** Also, I'm not from San Diego so I made up a few things for creative liberty. I do not own Reign, the characters, or the city. (Go ahead. Quote Arrow in a deep voice- "Kiirsten, you have failed this city.")**

_I wish that I could fly_

_Into the sky_

_So very high_

_Just like a dragonfly_

** Fly Away- Lenny Kravitz**

Now he probably thought of her as ungrateful.

She wasn't. Not in the least. It had nothing to do with his smell or those eyes that she would probably recognize anywhere after one glance in the. It was just that the last thing she needed were people taking pictures of her being a klutz and nearly walking into a death trap.

It made her laugh at the same time that it made her frustrated. Many people owned business and had their children, but those children didn't make the daily paper. Perhaps for Mary it was because her parents were divorced, had their own companies, and Mary was set to inherit both the most talked about paper in the city and a bank. It seemed unfair that she would get it all. Shouldn't the company go to the hardest working employees? Surely not the young girl nicknamed "San Diego's Princess" would get everything? Especially not when she wanted such responsibility and pressure placed on her.

Mary Stuart and Beau End. Mary Stuart Wears a White Dress- Expecting a Nuptial? The Beautiful Mary Stuart Likes Doughnuts. It hadn't been so bad the past month for obvious reasons. Single Mary was apparently less interesting.

_Maybe I'll inherit the companies and then I can change the rules_, she thought as she walked into her work. _And ban paparazzi_. It was why she liked Comic Con. The papers were too busy with reporting on more interesting people.

"Ms. Stuart!" the receptionist called her name just as Mary was passing the front desk.

"What?" Mary broke out of her daze. The girl, Penelope, looked at her expectantly. "Oh!" Mary took out her ID badge. It was the rule, to always show your ID badge at the front desk no matter how well everyone knew each other. "Thank you Penelope."

It was going to be a busy day. It was just before 9:00 and everyone was hustling, save for a few getting coffee or something to eat.

Mary stared at her desk, examining the mountain of paperwork that was waiting for her. Lola, her assistant and a good friend, was already walking towards her.

"Walk with me while I get something to eat," the two of them headed towards the break room at a fast pace.

Mary took a few of the doughnuts and put them on a plate.

"Hit me," she said. Lola only gave her a puzzled look. "Tell me what's on the calendar for today."

"Right," Mary made herself a hot chocolate as her friend talked. "The meeting is at 11:00, and Hugo asks that everyone be there to discuss the May upfronts. You also have to prepare for the two new episodes tonight, but that will have to be after your 2:00 meeting with representatives from Sea World and your 3:00 meeting with Sony."

"Sea World?" Mary had finished making her drink, and look at her friend with a raised eyebrow. "Have I been missing something?"

"They're sponsors for tonight's 8:00 program. And so is Sony."

"A day of meetings. Can't wait," Mary rolled her eyes. "Are you sure you don't want my job? We can switch if you'd rather."

Lola smiled. "No, thank you. I quite like mine."

"Is there anything else I have to look forward to? Maybe the reason why there is so much paperwork on my desk?"

"Oh, yes. Alec wanted you to go to his office so that he can explain that to you."

Mary checked her watch. "I should go now then. Thank you Lola."

Her friend went back to work as Mary headed to her supervisor's office on the floor above, stopping to grab all the paperwork from her desk before doing so. Alec was pleasant to work with, Hugo was a different story. He was the president of the whole TWE network and never failed to remind people of it.

Mary knocked on Alec's door. He saw her through the glass and beckoned her inside. "You have perfect timing, Ms. Stuart. Please, have a seat."

Mary sat on a chair across from Alec and held up a few of the manila folders. "Something you've been meaning to tell me?"

"I've chosen you to be the one to help us which shows we should renew, cancel, and pick-up. You just have to look at the numbers of the costs and viewership numbers, including demos. And don't forget to look at the time slots. We want to have the shows that will pull in good viewing numbers. Think you can do that?"

Mary felt stumped. That was a huge responsibility. "Isn't this a company thing? I mean, why me? Is this some sort of punishment?"

Alec chuckled. "No, this is not a punishment. You're hard-working and despite what others might think, we don't like you because of your situation. You're just showing us why we should make the decisions that we will be making. You're good at convincing people and reasoning with them. That's why we chose you to talk to Sea World." He gave her a mischievous smile.

"So the whole office is laughing at me. Good to know," Mary mumbled.

"Speak up Ms. Stuart. That's not how we talk to people."

She sighed. "How long do I have?"

"Until the upfronts on May 16th. That will give you five weeks from this Friday. We've renewed two shows so that's two less off your plate."

She stood up. "Done."

"Good luck!" he called after her as she left.

She would need it.

Mary spent nearly two hours looking over everything, eating a doughnut once in a while to calm her nerves.

"Mary, the meeting is in three minutes," Lola came by to tell her.

Mary picked up her purse and headed to the conference room on the top floor in a hurry.

Hugo came in last and stood by the whiteboard. "Feet off the table Colin, before I make you spend your day with Sea World." There was quiet laughter as Mary closed her eyes. So even the President of TWE knew.

"Yes sir," Colin said mockingly.

The next hour was spent talking about everything the employees already knew- ratings, demographics, schedules, etc. Mary was actually looking forward to more entertaining meetings that the afternoon was sure to bring.

She wasn't wrong.

"The commercial is exactly 45 seconds long, and you're telling me you can't fit it into your schedule?"

Mary was going to need a Tylenol as soon as this was over. The first 15 minutes had been the man expressing his discontent.

"Mr. de la Croix, we have already two commercials for your park showing. There are five breaks in tonight's episode, four minutes worth of commercials and advertisements with a preview for the new X-Men movie. If you want us to add another commercial, then don't have us showing the exact same one three times in a span of one hour."

"The agreement, Ms. Stuart, was _three_."

_Why am I doing this? I had nothing to do with advertisements or product placements. _

"Yes sir, three. Tonight's episode of My Fair Lady at 9:00 is going to follow an episode of The Fallen, the show you signed up to put money into. The show that will be feature an extra in the background holding an item from your souvenir."

"Sea World products in a fantasy show? That doesn't make any sense."

"No sir, it really doesn't. But you chose to put money into the episode. We're doing the best we can with two commercials and a product placement."

Sea World wasn't easy to advertise on a fantasy show.

"May I suggest that next time; support a show on our network where it would make sense. We have the show All's Fair in Love and War that's about college life. It would be so much easier for us, and you, if you chose that show."

"Or maybe we'll put the money into another TV network," Richard de la Croix said as he started to pack his belongings. He started to leave the room.

"But we already have two of the same commercials!" she called after him. "Isn't that good enough?"

He was already out of earshot.

_Hugo and Alec are going to kill me. _

Mary sighed, only hoping the meeting with Sony would go better.

Thankfully, it did, but only by a little. They wanted to meet to discuss investing more money into the network's shows, but were concerned on the viewership numbers. It was simple to advertise electronics on the majority of the shows, but for them the number of people who saw an episode didn't make the investment worth it.

By 4:00, Mary wanted to cry. Who was she to predict which shows people would watch and which companies were going to stop sponsoring them?

The day ended on a low note. She wasn't done until 10, after the last episode of the night had aired.

Taking a deep breath, she got into her car and went home.

By Wednesday, Mary was ready to collapse. All she wanted to do was watch a movie under a blanket with some doughnuts on a plate. The Harbor Club Condo she lived in could be lonely at times, but it sure gave her plenty of space to put the massive 90 inch Flat Screen TV her father had bought for her as a house warming gift. Lunch with him the day before had been one of the few times that week where Mary could catch her breath.

Normally, her salary would not have compensated for such an expensive place. Her parents had bought it for her as a graduation present. All she did was pay the bills and whatever else she needed. She'd bought her own car. Her parents weren't about to buy that for her too.

She went to the grocery store before heading home. It was a struggle to carry all the paper bags, but she made it. The red light on the house phone was blinking. It seemed silly to have one when she really only used the cell phone, but her mother was the one who wanted it in case the cell phone was lost (like on Monday when it broke after she dropped it from the surprise of someone grabbing her). She pressed the button anyway and then put the food away as she listened.

"Mary, it's your mother. I haven't heard from you in a few days but I wanted to tell you that you should read the paper tomorrow. Your father said you two had lunch yesterday and you discussed ways to lighten your stress. There are some places looking for volunteers and I was thinking that would let you get out, meet people, and perhaps enjoy yourself. Call me back when you can."

"Yes, Mother," she made herself a late-night snack in the form of a grilled cheese sandwich. Luckily, she only worked late on Monday nights. Those were the days where she monitored the shows. Colin stayed on Tuesdays, Olivia on Wednesdays, Natalia on Thursdays, and Tomas on Fridays.

She curled up on her couch and decided to surf Netflix until she found a movie she wanted to see. It was the perfect end to a busy day.

Mary left the office for her lunch break the next day. There was a park not far that she almost walked past. She bought a paper, and then found a bench to sit on.

Her mother had been right. There were plenty of volunteer opportunities. Some didn't strike Mary's fancy (teaching people to knit? Cutting grass?) but there were a few that did, including a place called Feeding America that help to feed the people in need. She circled her choices and then placed her chocolate Frappuccino from Starbucks on her knee.

She took a bite of the glazed doughnut she'd brought and kept on reading. There was a feeling she couldn't shake off.

A feeling that somebody was watching her.

Mary looked up to look at the people who were in the park with her. There were a few people around but nobody was paying attention to what she was doing, and there were no photographers.

_Weird_, she thought.

And that's when her drink spilled.

"No no no no," she didn't have any napkins on her. "Crap!" she stood up, forgetting about the doughnut, which fell to the ground shortly after.

"Not my doughnut!" she said to herself quietly, getting upset.

After picking up the doughnut and cup, she threw them into the trash can and then looked behind her.

Nobody was there.

**I hope that gave you more insight into Mary! And I hope this helped to heal the pain we went through yesterday, because that was brutal (unless Laurie was only talking about season 1 and Bash and Nos end the season running off because Kenna's dead. Either that or they just like rushing Kennash and shoving it in our faces).**

** Natalia is the girl Francis hooked up with in the Pilot episode, the one who was probably his sister's lady-in-waiting.**

** Apologies for any spelling errors. I just noticed one in Chapter 2 lol**

**Reviews are nice. Thank you for the continued (and new) support! Picture of Mary's condo on my profile page!**


	4. Ordinary World

**I LOVED hearing all of your inputs about the whole mess the show is in. I agree with it, but let's hope it's only about season 1 or else season 2 ratings are screwed. If the ratings need a boost, they might have to resort to what Season 1A was, which was much more entertaining and less of a headache. **

_**Italics**_** are thoughts, but I think you guys probably guessed that =) I'm changing the cover photo once you guys know what Bash will be doing for Mary and vice versa (next chapter). And I promise to update WSOTT at some point, I'm a little stuck on it lol (and really busy right now) Next chapter of this story is a lot longer than this one. Let's see who can get how Mary and Bash help each other!**

**I do not own Reign or the characters or the city. All mistakes are mine. **

_And as I try to make my way_

_To the ordinary world_

_I will learn to survive_

**Ordinary World- Duran Duran**

Bash nearly walked out of there at that moment.

But something stopped him. The growl in his stomach and something else he couldn't put a finger on.

_She's not going to remember what I look like_, he reminded himself. _Out of a large city and all the people she sees every day, what's the chance of that happening?_

Someday, maybe not today, but someday, he would be the first one to start the conversation with the volunteers. They always seemed to talk to him first.

The first one in the line was Agnes. She was compassionate, a little too much for Bash's taste because it made him endure endless questions about how his life was. And his answer was always the same, "It hasn't changed since the last time I was here."

When would it?

"Sebastian!" Agnes wasn't even looking at where she was putting the food on his tray and he certainly wasn't about to tell her that. "How are you doing? I haven't seen you in quite some time."

"I'm doing the same as always. I haven't had anything exciting happen in my life," Bash forced a smile. "How are you doing, Agnes?"

"Perfect. If you want dessert, just go to Mary," she pointed to the girl at the end of the line, who was talking to everyone like they were old friends. So Mary was her name.

Bash looked back at Agnes. "I think I'll skip the dessert."

"Are you sure about that, Sebastian? There's chocolate cake and leftover doughnuts."

"Leftover doughnuts?" Bash wasn't keen on eating doughnuts that had already been chewed on. He may have been on his own for a while now, but he still liked to think he had some dignity left in him.

"That didn't sound right, my apologies. I meant to say she bought too many for herself so she's giving some away here."

"That was worded better the second time but I think I'll still skip dessert. I'm not sure I could handle so much food. Thanks again, Agnes." Agnes was too busy with the next person in line to respond.

Bash sat at a table, in a corner away from everyone. It gave him a good view of this Mary girl. _What's with her doughnut obsession?_

She made sure to talk to everyone that came to her, a smile always on her face. She was a breath of fresh air in this place.

Bash smiled when he saw men try to flirt with her, but she treated them just as the same as she had everyone else.

Halfway through his meal, he looked up.

Mary was looking at him. Their eyes met for a second as Bash smiled at her, unaware he was doing so. She smiled back (almost shyly), pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and went back to work.

Bash stood up when he was done and headed to the door.

"Wait!" he turned to the sound of the voice.

Mary.

"Are you sure you don't want any cake? I don't think it should go to waste, do you?" she held the cake up, giving him a knowing smile. She moved the cake around, as if to tempt him.

"It's been a long time since I've eaten so much. I don't think a cake would be a very good idea. Thank you for offering, though."

He started heading out again.

"What about a doughnut?"

Bash stopped again.

"Please, please, please? Nobody's taken any and I can't finish all of these by myself. It's one small doughnut, not a piece of chocolate cake. I promise it won't make you sick."

She was begging him now.

He gave up and walked over to her. "Chocolate icing or glazed? I have both," she held them up proudly.

"Chocolate icing sounds good."

Mary handed him one. "So what's your name?"

"Francis," Bash answered, using the name of one of his brothers. "What's yours?"

"Mary Stuart, one of the Coordinators of Media Relations of the TWE Network in downtown San Diego that serves the viewers by bringing a new show each night by monitoring the media and coordinating the schedules. Another doughnut? You could use the weight. I also help maintain relationships with the media and our sponsors."

"…What?" Bash was lost. Had she switched the topic to his weight in between talking about her job description? He knew he'd lost weight (he had been thin before but now he was underweight), but that seemed a tad random to him. All he understood was that her last name was Stuart so it had to have been a family member she was on the phone with when he first saw her.

"What?"

He shook his head. He would just get more confused if she explained everything in that sentence she spoke so quickly about. "Never mind. It's nice to meet you, Mary."

"You look very familiar. Have I met you before?"

Bash wasn't sure if what he felt at her words was disappointment or relief, but he was feeling something. It had been some time since he had actually known what he was feeling, or since he had felt anything. That…_thing_ that people called emotions was lost on him for all he and everyone else knew. Bash's lack of emotions went unchanged from day to day.

"No, I don't think you have."

"Oh. It's just your eyes looked like ones I saw earlier this week. It was a guy I never got to thank properly and I never got a good look at him because I was too distracted with other things. He saved me from being turned into jelly." He raised an eyebrow. That was an interesting way of putting it. "By jelly, I mean he stopped me from becoming roadkill."

Bash tried not to groan. Growing up, his eyes had been a hot topic with everyone that met him. He enjoyed it, especially when it got the pretty girls to introduce themselves to him in Middle School and High School. Now, his eyes were the reason people remembered him for what he was- and it felt like a curse.

"Sorry, but your hero is probably someone else."

"Probably? Don't you mean, definitely?"

Bash bit his lip. He had never been good at talking to people, even worse the past couple of years. It was usually due to never being able to hold a comment back. He would say whatever it was he wanted to say without thinking first.

"Yes. I meant definitely," Bash tried to keep a poker face.

"Of course you did. Just like how you were honest when you said that your name is Francis."

"That was very true. My name is most definitely Francis."

She put a hand on her hips. "Really? Because it sounded to me," she leaned across the metal counter, "like Agnes called you Sebastian." He opened his mouth to respond but she cut him off. "I heard my name when she said it. It's called cocktail hearing; it's when you hear your name across the room even if you're in the middle of a conversation. And so I was going to Agnes her what she needed and that's when I heard the name Sebastian. She was talking to you when she said it."

"Why does my name matter?"

"I want to get to know the regulars. I was looking for volunteer opportunities the other day and I liked my time here today. I'm thinking of coming back."

"I'm not a regular."

"So if your name's Sebastian, then who's Francis?"

"My brother. He moved with his family to Italy a few years ago."

"So why aren't you with them, if I may ask?"

"His dad was mine too, but his mom wasn't. It's a long story. And please don't call me Sebastian, it's just Bash."

Mary held up a finger. "Hold that thought. I need to clean up here but have a seat and you can tell me your story."

Bash wasn't in the mood to talk about his story, but he sat down and waited for her while she cleaned up.

"Agnes said they're closing right after everything is put away so I'm afraid we can't sit here for very long."

Bash started to tell her everything, despite his initial hesitation. She only listened and asked questions every so often. Agnes said they were closing but Mary insisted he still continue talking to her. It led to them walking down the streets to where Mary lived, and him admitting that he had been the one to prevent her from "being turned into jelly." Halfway through their conversation, he took the leftovers from her arms and carried them for her.

"What about you?" he asked her when he was done telling her what had happened.

"I'm not as interesting as your story. I was originally born in Scotland. My mother works in journalism and my father works at a bank. I majored in Media Studies and I just got my degree last year."

"Any boyfriends?"

"Not recently. It's frustrating for both parties when parents are determined to make sure you marry someone well-to-do and constantly bring themselves into your business."

"Catherine would have loved you then."

"How so?"

He gave a throaty laugh. "Catherine was the Queen of gossip. She would also what to know what was happening around her. Before my dad died, I remember her telling my brother Francis about a girl she thought he should see. I thought the idea of an arranged relationship with ridiculous. We're not in 16th-century France, who cares about climbing the social ladder because you're dating San Diego's Princess?"

Mary stopped walking. "Who did you say?"

Bash rolled his eyes. "I told you the whole thing was ridiculous but I never saw what she looked like or heard her real name. Catherine was just going on about how respectable the girl's family was and I didn't care to see what the girl looked like so I never asked. Francis might have but he never told me if he did."

"San Diego's Princess. That's an interesting nickname."

"She's probably found a rich husband by now," Bash shrugged it off.

They walked in silence until Mary said they'd reached her place. Bash's jaw dropped. She lived in a nice (and massive) condo by the looks of it. He didn't even want to ask her what the cost of rent was.

"One last question. What are your talents?"

Taken aback, he thought about it. "Numbers. I'm good with numbers. It's one of the reasons why I liked Math and why I almost majored in Accounting. I liked doing Math because then I don't have to talk to people."

"Are you saying people scare you?"

"No. I just can't talk to them properly. I say things I shouldn't or I can't talk at all. Take you, for instance. You're not intimidating to me, so I can talk to you without stammering or saying whatever comes to my mind."

"But you couldn't start a conversation without lying."

"I'm sorry about that. I didn't think you would remember what I looked like so I thought I could blow it over."

"I feel like I should be offended at that, but I'm not. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something. You just reminded me of it."

"What's that?"

"It would take the rest of the night to explain but I have some files I was given at work, but the problem is that I'm not as good with numbers the way you seem to be. Do you think you could meet me tomorrow morning at around 9:30? I can bring the files with me."

"I've forgotten Math equations so I don't think I can help you with any homework."

"I graduated, remember? This is just comparing numbers that have been gathered and kept for a number of years."

"Okay…"

"Great! 9:30 on the street where we met? I'm guessing there are clocks in every single store around that area just in case you don't know the time."

Bash hadn't agreed but he had no other way to spend his day tomorrow. "I'll see you at 9:30 then."

"Thank you so much for this," she started walking into the building. "Do you need a ride to get back?"

Bash waved her off. "I'm not far, I can walk." He didn't want her to worry about the actual distance between her condo and his deadbeat car.

"You sure?"

"I am. Good night Mary."

'Good night, Sebastian."

**So now you probably know what he'll be doing. And yes, she'll tell him her reasons for wanting to give him the opportunity to do so. Next chapter will be soon, as long as you guys want it to be! ;) Reviews are loved! Hope you guys liked this one!**

** So yes, our San Diego's Princess is Mary like it said last chapter. Bash heard about her, but never met her…until now**


	5. Sunday Morning

** Thank you for all the reviews! Don't you just love how Catherine had heard about "San Diego's Princess" and wanted her for her and Henry's son? We want Mary with his son too, just not that one =). Also, Francis never met Mary. Henry dying made everything go crazy with the family moving, so he never got the chance to meet her. Also, I did not know Fallen was going to actually be a show in RL, but there were pics of it on IMDB lol.**

** Changing the cover photo after this chapter since now we find out how Mary and Bash will help each other. Beccausethenight- you were right (hey that rhymed)**

_ **I do now own Reign or the characters. All grammar/spelling mistakes are mine.**_

_ But things just get so crazy living life gets hard to do  
And I would gladly hit the road get up and go if I knew _

**Sunday Morning- Maroon 5 **

It had been an interesting conversation with Ms. Stuart. He definitely needed to patch up his social skills no doubt, but he had no regrets over going to the kitchen tonight. Mary was a nice girl but he didn't know what the deal was about the diamond necklace. She seemed quite offended when he suggested selling it, instead of throwing it away. She had to have known how much the necklace was likely worth.

Bash didn't know what time it was when he made it back. He was exhausted from the walking, and trying to figure out the cost of her condo made his head hurt.

He sat down in front of a bookstore, rubbing his eyes and looking at the street. There were several people walking at this time of night but Bash didn't pay attention to is surroundings. He had no idea what Mary had been suggesting with all her questions. And he certainly didn't know why she wanted him to meet her on the street where they had met. What he did know was that she had a reason for asking to meet with him.

Bash spent the rest of the night awake, walking until his feet hurt and finally sitting on the bench where Mary had sat the few days before.

He didn't know what time it was when people were coming out to jog, or walk their dogs. The sun wasn't out completely yet and Bash had been awake the entire night, thinking of directions his life could have taken had it not been for Henry's ill-timed death. Who would have thought a dead Henry would be causing so much trouble?

And then there was Mary. She had been on Bash's thoughts for most of the night as he tried to picture how the day would go. Would she question him more about the lack of choices he currently, or remind him of his life situation?

He had no way of knowing.

Bash stood up, wanting to see Castleroy but remembering just how seriously that man took his Saturdays. He always spent the day with his wife, occasionally coming into work to check up on his employees.

Bash went to the street where he had met Mary.

It took some time to get there. He didn't encourage his hunger further by refusing to look into any windows of restaurants or bakeries. He did ask someone for the time and they were kind enough to let him know it was just after 7:30. Mary was not going to be there for two more hours.

All Bash wanted was some sleep (and something to eat or drink) but that was a lost cause. He doubt he could even find his way to his car with the current state he was in.

_Why did she want to meet so early on a Sunday morning? _

He wanted to rip his hair out by the roots when it started raining, but he decided to just head inside the shoe store that was behind him.

Two hours did not fly by. When he saw her outside (looking around, likely wondering where he was), he had never been so happy to someone before in his life.

"Come inside!" Bash called to her. She turned around, holding her umbrella closely above her head).

"Actually, I'm parked just a block away. Why don't we drive to my condo and get out of this weather?" She suggested.

Bash looked at the sky. It showed no signs of clearing anytime soon.

"I suppose we should get out of the rain."

She led the way down the street and to her car. It was modest, but much nicer than Bash could have ever been able to buy.

"So what exactly did you want to meet me for?" He asked her.

Mary kept her eyes on the road. "It's difficult to explain without being able to show you, so I'll have to show you when we get to my house. I think you'll get a kick out of it."

Bash would have preferred she tell him upfront, but kept quiet the rest of the drive.

Once they were in the parking lot, Bash felt close to falling asleep. He almost fell flat on his face in the elevator when they rode up 31 floors.

"Here we are!" Mary was in a very good mood, which he assumed was to partly make up for his lack of one. "Make yourself comfortable! I'm going to get everything I need and I'll be right back."

She left him standing in the hallway, processing his surroundings and no idea how to make himself comfortable.

The condo was huge. The kitchen was bigger than his motel room had been, there was a huge TV in front of the cleanest pieces of furniture he had ever seen, and outside was a pool with a barbecue grill. He took off his shoes to avoid getting her wooden floors dirty and walked over to the window to look at the clear blue water of the pool.

"Are you comfortable standing up?" she came back a minute later, folders nearly spilling out of her hands.

"Do you barbecue?" he asked her, looking out the window.

She stood next to him. "No, my father will sometimes come to visit and use it. My ex was the one who bought it and he left it there. Did you ever use one?"

"All the time in the spring and summer. Francis and I would use it but our dad took it away after we nearly set it on fire. Or rather, after my brother nearly caused a fire because he forgot about the food he was left in it. When was the last time yours was used?"

"A month ago."

She left Bash's side by the window and sat on a couch.

"I know you're curious, so why don't you sit down and I'll explain what it is I wanted to ask you to do."

Bash took a seat on the couch across from her. This was the second time he was going to help her, but he was still interested to know what it was for. He'd been up in the night thinking of all the possible scenarios.

"So as you know, I work for a television network," she started. "I know you haven't had much contact with social media for the past few years, but I'm sure you're aware of what happens every May. We make final decisions on what shows we want to continue to air the following year, which ones we don't, and which new ones we want to broadcast. Of course, we can renew shows early which is what we have done with two of our highest-rated shows. We renewed them a month ago but the others are still in limbo. Granted, there are some that we're very likely to cancel because they don't bring in the numbers or hit the demographic audience of people from ages 18-49 but I've still been asked to look them all over. Once I do, my boss Hugo, who's the President of the network, wants me to convince him why we should make the final decisions that I think we should. I was given the assignment by my supervisor Alec- are you all right?" she stopped to ask.

Bash stifled his yawn. "Sounds like a lot of work."

"That's the third time you've yawned since I began talking, I'm starting to think I might be boring you."

He shook his head. "Actually, I'm really interested in it. I didn't sleep last night is all."

"How bad?"

"Not a wink."

Her mouth dropped open. "You poor thing! Do you need to have a nap? I could leave tou be for an hour."

Bash wasn't sure he had heard right. "Are you offering me your couch or something?"

"If you'd like."

Bash was having a hard time believing her. Why would a stranger be so kind to him? It was unusual for him, or at least it had been for the past two years.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" her voice broke his train of thought.

"You're offering to let a stranger take a nap on your couch without the slightest hesitation. I guess I was just taken aback."

She shrugged. "You spared me from getting hit by a car and now you're helping me with work, if you'd like to of course. I think I owe you to at least make yourself comfortable on my couch." She stood up. "Do you need a blanket or better pillows?"

Bash shook his head. "I haven't used either of those for almost two years. I think I can last another hour without them."

"Are you sure? I don't want you uncomfortable."

Bash gave a small laugh. "After sleeping in my car for that long, sleeping on a couch is going to be heaven."

Mary left him without arguing. He lay down, trying to feel less awkward about sleeping in a stranger's (beautiful stranger's) home. His thoughts were laid to rest as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

"Bash?"

He heard her voice and felt himself being shaken awake.

"Bash? Are you still alive?"

He opened his eyes, his blue-green eyes staring into her brown ones. "Mary?"

She smiled down at him, the sun hitting behind her. It was quite a sight to wake up to. "Wow, you were dead to the world."

He sat up slowly and blinked hard, trying to clear his vision. "Yeah, I feel like I've been sleeping for a while."

"Two hours. I realize that wasn't very long, but I have breakfast that I thought you might not have gotten a chance to eat this morning before we met."

Bash stood up, unsteady on his feet from the exhaustion. "You didn't have to do that."

"It's just leftovers from last night that nobody ate that would go bad if we kept it until next week," she had walked out of his sight, but he could hear his voice.

"Where are you?" he turned in circles.

"Over here! Walk forward and then go left."

Bash couldn't believe he was getting lost in a condo. Either he needed more sleep or her place was big enough to get lost in.

"To your left."

There she was, peering into the refrigerator and taking some plastic boxes out.

"What could possibly go bad by Monday?" he wondered out loud.

"Nothing. I'm working next Saturday and I took some of the food to store it in the fridge. I wasn't thinking that I wasn't going to be back on Monday. I promise I'm not trying to steal food from you guys."

"I don't care," Bash admitted. "That's probably for the best to tell you the truth. There are some who go every day and I've talked to them. Trust me, a few of them remember every meal and get mad when they see the exact same thing the next day. I think it's ungrateful of them to be honest."

Mary smiled at him as she closed the fridge and opened one of the boxes. "That's good to know for future reference. What do you want to eat?"

Bash looked around at everything she had. "I'll have some of that pie left."

Mary laughed. "Pie for breakfast?"

"Never had dessert for breakfast?" he dared.

Mary took out a fork and put it in the apple pie, taking a bite from it. "Is that good enough for you?" she saw the look on his face. "What's the matter? Never had dessert for breakfast?" she echoes his earlier question.

He shook his head, a smile creeping on his lips. "So tell me what exactly you need help on."

"I need you to look at the numbers with me and decide which decisions are the best ones for the network to make."

"Why me?"

"You said you were good at math."

"Yes, I said that. But I'm not good at public speaking and talking to a large crowd, I can't tell your boss why the numbers say what they do. Actually, I wouldn't be able to tell him anyways because I'm not working at the station so I'm of no help to you. . . "

Mary put a hand up to interrupt him. "Bash, you're just the opposite if you do this for me. I don't see how you could help me anymore. About the speaking, you leave that to me. I'm going to talk to Alec tomorrow and see what he says. If I can convince him to let you help us, I can put you on a temporary assignment for us that would include payment."

Bash dropped the fork that he had put in the pie. "_Payment?_" he asked, as if he had never heard the word before.

"Would you rather not? I know it's rather blunt of me to ask you to have such a responsibility, but after our conversation last night, I thought 'why the hell not?' What do you think?"

"Are you sure you should ask me before talking to your supervisor? What if he says no?"

"Normally, I would say it's wrong to give you false hope if I thought there was a chance that it would even be false hope. But I know it isn't."

"You sound very sure of that."

"I've worked in this business long enough to know what my limits are. Alec respects me, and I respect him."

Bash picked up his fork and started eating, thinking long and hard about what she was saying now that his mind had cleared. "I'll do it. Show me what's in the files."

Mary got the biggest smile on her face and skipped to where she had left the folders. He picked up the container that the pie was in, and followed her. They sat on the same couch as before. Mary put her legs up on the furniture and faced him.

"There's a lot of information," she began. "Some of it is irrelevant but most of it is what I need to look over."

"What's considered irrelevant?"

"Shows we've canceled in the past that didn't make it to a sophomore year. We've only been a network for six years."

"That's not irrelevant at all. In fact, I think it might be important that you look those canceled shows over."

"How do you figure?"

Bash held out his hand. "Let me see the canceled shows." Mary gave him a folder and he opened it up. "Assuming your network hasn't changed it's standards since it was made, I think we should look at these first. The reasons for these shows being canceled can help determine what ratings are expected for your current ones."

"We have to factor in the costs as well. If a show is expensive and funding is limited, then good viewership and demographics are essential."

"You're forgetting something," Bash told her.

Mary looked genuinely confused. "The quality of the show? We haven't forgotten."

"Oh, I have no doubt about that. I'm think more in terms of the people. There's a very big difference between a casual viewer and a loyal viewer. A show could have so many views in their first season, but it's the people who are really into a show that get it renewed. As long as they're satisfied with the writing of course. Those that care about a show will follow it into it's second season, third season, and so on and so forth."

"That would be because they're still happy with the show's direction. We can't control the writing."

"No, but you can tell them about their viewership. If keeping their job is important to them, then they want to know why they're losing or gaining viewers and what they can do to stay on the air for as long as possible, or as long as they want."

"Sometimes we don't know why people are giving up on shows unless we ourselves see the programs and invest ourselves in it."

"Don't you invest yourselves to the point where you follow a show? Isn't that what a network is supposed to do?"

"Some of us switch off nights. I stay at work and watch the two shows on Monday nights and I'm enjoying them both. Our 8:00 show that night has already been renewed for its third season. It's called Fallen based off the book series with the same name."

"A third season is good. If I remember correctly, having a fourth means syndication."

"It does. Fallen is our highest rated series and has been for the two years that its been on. Sometimes the ratings for our shows decline right before spring, but then they always come back up and hit high for the finales."

"Are there any shows you're worried about?"

"A few."

"Which ones?"

Mary took out a few other sheets of paper. "A few of our freshman dramas."

"And why are they a concern? Bad viewership?"

"Decreasing. There's one in particular. It was doing okay in its first season. I was surprised that Hugo approved it for renewal but I think he's regretting the decision. Not many sponsors are willing to put their money into it either, especially because not enough people view it."

"Which show is this?"

"A Dying Wish."

Bash looked at the numbers. Mary was right- the viewing numbers had gone from 3.2 million in the season premiere to 1.3 in its most recent episode. They had lost two million viewers in just six months and that was bad for any network.

"Wow, you weren't kidding about a decreasing number of viewers. Does the show just really suck or something?"

"No, I actually think it's a really cute and fun show. It's just that Friday nights are terrible."

"So are Monday nights."

"That's why Fallen is on Monday night. It can hold its own on that night while pulling up another show."

"Is that why you moved A Dying Wish to Fridays? To give it a painful death?"

Mary didn't say anything, but the guilty look on her face said it all.

"Cancel it then. You better hope they don't end it on a cliffhanger, because then the fans will be at your throat. If the show-runners and writers are aware of the ratings, then there's a good chance they know they'll be canceled and they planned the finale accordingly."

"I hope it's option B then," Mary shrunk in her seat. "The last thing that the TWE network needs is to be burned to the ground."

"I don't think you have to worry about that. Some people get crazy about their show, but not to the point of burning the host network down. At least, we hope not"

Mary grabbed a pillow and put it over her face.

"So that show is out," Bash concluded.

Mary stood up. "I have a small whiteboard to write on. Do you think you could put some of the choices on there?"

"Sure."

Mary walked out of his sight and was gone for a minute, returning with a whiteboard and two markers to write with. She sat at his feet, poised to write.

"What other freshman show were you worried about?"

"Parents and Children. It's doing okay in ratings, but it keeps decreasing and increasing. It's a cheap show to make though. The actors are not very well-known and it's filmed in Vancouver. There are no crazy special effects and they only use about three different set locations, sometimes adding another one just for a single episode."

Bash looked at the statistics for the show. "You guys have quite a few genres. From Family to Fantasy to Drama. I think this one you should keep, at least for one more season."

"Are you sure it won't be like A Dying Wish?"

Bash turned the papers to her. "The viewers may be flipping back and forth but your demos are steady most of the time, with sponsors still paying a good amount to invest in it. The only drastic change with viewers was from episode 4 to episode 5 when the viewers went from 5.6 million to 5.2 million. Other than that, it can still hold its own. And the competing shows," Bash flipped the page and examined another one, "are very competitive. Keep this one."

Mary headlined the word KEEP and added the show to it. She already had Fallen and The My Fair Lady.

"So how's your 9:00 Monday show doing?"

"My Fair Lady. It's already been renewed."

"Two Monday shows renewed? Impressive. I thought you said Fallen was put on that night to pull up another show?"

"It did. We've had a 10% increase in viewers with My Fair Lady along with a higher demo."

"That's good, right?"

Mary smiled. "Very good."

Bash looked to the pages for the Friday shows. Mary got nervous when he didn't say anything for a while, opting to clean her bathroom while she waited. When she was done, he was writing on the whiteboard.

"Sorry my writing's messy. It's been a while."

It was messy, but not unreadable like it was with a few people from her office.

"I can read it. You made a decision to give The Grimm Brothers a shortened season. May I ask why you think we should?"

"It's on its fourth season. That means its already good for syndication but the viewing numbers has decreased year to year."

"Keep it on Friday night?"

"For a half season, yes."

"Then we will need another half season show."

"You can't just do re-runs for the last season of The Grimm Brothers? It would help refresh their memories."

Mary shook her head. "We would need 22 weeks to show all the episodes. And I don't think they'll need to refresh their memories if they buy the DVD or if we air the season that was just shown this year."

"I see your point," Bash looked back. "Let's find another show to make a half season, help give it closure."

"Not A Dying Wish?" She looked up at him.

"You just really like that show, don't you?"

"It's a guilty pleasure."

Bash laughed at the pout she was giving him. "Well, unfortunately all things have to come to an end. Is there another show that's on the bubble?"

"Just one more. It's called Twister, airs on Wednesday nights at 9:00."

"Is it similar to the movie or the game?"

"The movie. How would we make an entire show about the game?"

"You could have contortionists doing freaky positions in all types of scenarios. I don't know, that's a good question."

Mary, with the image of contortionists in her head, started laughing until it was contagious and Bash was joining her.

"You truly have a gift," she said after their laughter had died down.

"I think Twister should have a short third season. And I also think I need to go, I can't do all your work for you in one day. How long do you have?"

"The upfronts are on May 16th." She stood up with him. "Let me talk to Alec tomorrow and see if we can bring you in until that time. Is there any way to reach you?"

"Ummm..." Bash wasn't sure how to answer that. "No?"

"Of course, I'm sorry. You know what? You know where I work, come in on Tuesday and I can tell you what he said."

Bash wasn't holding his breath. Knowing his luck, her supervisor Alec was going to say no. At least Bash could walk away today knowing he'd done a good deed.

"Can I ask you something? Why are you doing all this?"

"It's silly. Alec dumped the whole assignment on me even though this is only my second year and I have no idea what to make of all the numbers when it comes to renewal or cancellation-"

"I'm not talking about the numbers."

Mary seemed to realize what he meant. "You're talking about why I'm giving you this opportunity."

Bash nodded.

"I don't know why. I was interested in your story last night and I wanted to help you. I'm not taking pity on you, I guess I also thought to pay my dues."

Great. So she felt she owed him. _Fan- freaking-tastic_, Bash thought

"What time do you want me to come by on Tuesday?"

"I don't believe I have anything on my calendar after 10:00. I go into work and tell Hugo the ratings from the night before and that's about it. So shall we say, 10:00?"

Bash gave her back the folders. "I can do that."

She gave him a huge smile. "Great! In the meantime, what would you like to do now?" Bash gave her a dumbfounded look. "Bash, if you were to leave right now, where would go? I'm sorry, that wasn't very nice to say. I usually think before speaking but I also go off on tangents. Come to think of it, maybe that's why my boyfriends are always happy to make me their ex. I mean, it could also be because of the pictures taken but then they would have stopped seeing me after the first two dates. I had one live here until we ended."

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Oh. I'm sorry." What else could Bash say?

"It's not your fault but thank you."

"I know it's not my fault. It's just something people say." Bash had no idea what she meant by pictures being taken, but he didn't think to ask.

"I know, I didn't mean to imply that it was. How about a change of subject? What did you do for fun before getting into this mess?"

"Watch movies, play video games, reblog."

"Reblog?"

"Yeah, I-" he stopped. How was he supposed to explain tumblr without sounding like some fanatic or one of those strangers his mother told him to avoid as a child? "I like to look at things and talk about them."

"Okay," Mary smiled.

"What do you do for fun?"

"It feels like nothing but work work work all the time. But I do enjoy going out and I go to yoga class once a week."

"You're a yoga girl?"

"I try. I've become more flexible since starting classes in September but it's helped me to relax after work."

Mary. Flexible. Bash shook the images out of his head. "I think I should let you get back to work then. It seems like you have a lot to do."

"And where are you going to go?"

"I have a friend to visit. His name's Castleroy."

He headed to her door, Mary walking and talking behind him. "Thank you so much for your help. Like I said, I'll talk to Alec but stop by at 10:00 anyway. We can get started Tuesday. I'm sure I'll have a meeting at some point in the day to go over ratings and see if we're any closer to making our final decisions. The shows on my day are safe but we still talk about all the other programs."

"What do I wear?"

"What you have on normally." Seeing Bash's raised eyebrows, she explained further. "Alec won't believe me otherwise, and we have to first see how you do before deciding to bring you on. I'm not saying I hope anyone pities you, but I hope you can show them what you can do like you've shown me today."

"I'll see you on Tuesday then," Bash walked out, Mary closing the door behind him.

She had let a stranger sleep on her couch, even if he was in desperate need of a shower and clean clothes. She didn't know why. But it had felt natural.

Mary shook her head and put on her workout video. Out of all people Bash's brother was looking to date, it was her. She had recognized her nickname when Bash had said it, but he hadn't known that he was talking to her about herself.

Oh, the irony.

Mary changed into her sweats and stretched with the video until she was covered in sweat. It was sweat from the workout, from the anxiety of asking for Alec's permission to bring in Bash, and how she would be the one to ultimately tell Hugo. And there was no telling what the president of the TWE network was going to say.

**Yes, Mary and Bash will go the May upfronts in New York. If solely for the fact to be kicking ass and taking names like the team they are. **

** And yes, Bash will meet Hugo but he may or may not give a good impression. **


	6. Good Day

**Mary Chapter- I don't know if what Alec does can be done, but let's pretend it can for story reasons. **

** Mary may blabber, but at least she knows what's appropriate to say. Bash, on the other hand, may not. =D**

** I do not own Reign or the characters, or any television network (TWE is made up). Mistakes, grammar or spelling, are all mine (though that would be embarrassing for me since English is my first language)**

_Well its a pretty good day.__  
__I'm lookin forward to tomorrow_

**Good Day- Luce**

Mary went straight to Alec's office when she came in (after clocking in of course). He was on the phone, but got off when he let her in. She had waited until Tuesday, too busy on Monday answering calls from sponsors.

"Do you have a minute?" she asked.

"For the city's Princess, always." She rolled her eyes at ridiculous nickname San Diego had given her but sat down.

"So there's this boy-"

"Ms. Stuart, I cannot say I'm qualified to give love advice. I've been divorced twice, so you might need to talk to someone else."

"It's not _that_, Alec. I'm as single as they come. Actually, I was hoping to bring this boy in to help us. And by us, I mean me."

"Help with what? Moving things?"

"No, help in making decisions with the assignment you gave me. He's very good with numbers and I met with him yesterday and he's already helped me."

"You already talked to him before asking me?"

Mary paused. "I didn't want to wait."

"You're being vague about what you know about him."

"It's...complicated." Alec didn't say anything, which allowed Mary to go off on a tangent. "His name is Sebastian, but he goes by Bash and he doesn't have much of a situation. He doesn't live anywhere, and on Saturday night he was up all night walking around and I had met him earlier that day, and he looked bloody awful," Mary explained everything to her supervisor, who listened to her talk with open ears.

"Sounds like an interesting guy."

"So what do you think?"

Alec looked at her with no expression, but then cracked a smile. "I can see you think highly of him. What did he come up with yesterday?"

"Quite a lot in a short amount of time. He gave his opinion on our bubble shows and on our Friday night shows."

"Did he?"

"He thinks The Grimm Brothers should get a shortened final season, cancel A Dying Wish, and renew Parents and Children. "

"And what do you think?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with him. He explained his reasons to me and I think that's what we should do. I think it's in the best interest for this network and for the people that watch our shows."

Alec nodded then sat up. "Bring him in."

"Already am. Today."

Her supervisor gave her a blank stare, but recovered quickly. "Let me get this straight. You already have him coming, but you asked me only because you didn't want to get in trouble when we met him."

"And I was hoping he would get paid."

"Ms. Stuart-"

"I want him at the upfronts!" she blurted out.

Alec held a hand up. "First of all Mary, I can't just pay someone. He would have to be an employee and to be an an employee, that would mean a job interview, drug testing, and the whole process that both you and I went through."

"I know," her shoulders slumped. "I guess I was just hoping to make a difference in someone's life. I guess he reminded me of my mother, how she worked her way up. This guy is at rock bottom, and body's given him the chance to be anything but."

Alec gave her a soft smile. "I want to help him, I really do. So I'll make a deal with you." Mary sat up. "If you bring him to the meeting later today and he impresses Hugo, I'll hire him on a temporary basis after talking to Hugo himself."

Her face brightened. "Really, you would? Are you allowed to do that?"

"Convince the president of the network? Better believe I can."

Mary squealed and gave her supervisor a hug. She had known him for years and considered more of a family friend than a supervisor. He had been the one to tell her about the job opening that later became hers.

"Thank you so much Alec! I owe you my firstborn!"

"No need for that Ms. Stuart," he said seriously, but with a smile. "In fact, I would rather you didn't."

Mary ran out of his office and down to the lobby. It was almost 10:00.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we're holding auditions for any homeless characters." She heard Penelope's voice.

There could have only been one person she was saying that to. Mary went to do damage control before Bash said anything back.

"Penelope! Thank you for finding my friend, the dry cleaners lost his dress shirt and he got some of his clothes stolen." Mary went up to the receptionist, telling the worst lie she had ever come up with. Bash was glaring at the girl. "Sebastian, come upstairs." He was dressed in the same ragged clothes from Sunday. Mary was in a gray pencil skirt and red blouse.

Bash followed Mary and she led him to her office. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's not a problem. At least she was being honest."

"I know, but still. It's embarrassing."

She didn't say anything else as they got off the elevator. Lola handed Mary the files as she discussed what was on the day's planner.

"Hugo is in a bad mood today, just to give you a heads up. Something to do with having to fire someone and them refusing to leave unless they get paid for the rest of the month. Who is this?" Lola finally noticed Bash walking next to Mary.

"This is Bash. Bash, this is my friend and assistant, Lola."

"Nice to meet you," Lola turned her attention back to Mary. "Meeting's at 10:30. I hope you're ready for Hugo's temper."

"I'm always ready for it. Bash is going to be observing," Mary looked to Bash. "Will that be all right with you?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Perfect. Can you see to it that there's an extra chair? You can put it on the side."

"Of course."

Lola looked over Bash one more time before leaving.

"She's suspicious of me. I think she thinks I'm here because I'm some nut job that you need to take off the street," Bash said to Mary in a quiet voice.

"I don't think so at all." They watched Lola put a chair in the conference room and leave it on the side. "Do you want me to show you around before we go in? You can get the inside scoop of what we do here."

"I'm interested to see what you do here, but I'm also curious to what will happen in the meeting. What will it be about?"

"May upfronts, which shows survive, and the new schedule we'll put them on,"

"What do you mean by the schedule you'll put them on?"

"We'll likely be picking up about three shows so we have to change our schedule in order to fit them into a good time."

"Can't you just put them into the slot that the canceled shows were in?"

"No. Remember A Dying Wish was on Friday. We can't start a new show on Friday. Then it looks like we have no faith in it."

"Which pilot shows does your boss want to pick up?"

"I'm not sure yet. There's one he's already in love with but we'll have to wait and see which ones he decides on."

"So what do we do in the meantime?"

Mary sat at her desk, and Bash sat on the chair Lola had already put out. "We wait a few minutes. Do you want anything? There's a break room with drinks and snacks if you'd like."

"I'm fine," he didn't look it, but she kept her mouth closed. "So do you have the file that shows the pilots you're looking at?"

"Yes," Mary opened the drawers of her desk and shuffled around. "I swear it's around here somewhere."

Bash spotted it and smiled. He picked it up from beside her mug filled with stationary, and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up. "It's right here," he told her. She blushed and took it from him.

"Maybe I should get glasses," she opened the file and skimmed through it. "Here it is," she turned the file sideways to allow Bash a look.

"No wonder your boss is having a hard time deciding," Bash said after reading the pilots over. "I think I know which one he's in love with, because that's the only one that sounds good. But the rest? I wouldn't pick any of that crap up."

"Shouldn't you wait until you've seen it?" Mary could see why he was skeptical, but the descriptions were not enough to go on. "We're watching the last pilot this week and making a decision on that. Unfortunately, I might be one of those people who has to make the painful call of telling somebody their show wasn't picked up."

"Sounds rough. To answer your question, I don't know if I should wait to see it. One sounds suspiciously like The X-Files, which is a gem that should never be touched. The other I read and I couldn't even get to the second sentence, it was that ridiculous. And then another was so confusing that I might need it explained to me, because I didn't understand a single word of it."

Mary looked at the show he was referring to. "That one is the pilot that we still have yet to see. They took longer to film it because there was a slight change in the script."

"Oh, and this pilot?" He pointed to another one. "All I saw was the word 'clowns' and I ended it right there."

"Are you scared of clowns?"

"Not as much as some are, but I wouldn't want it in my room at night."

Mary couldn't imagine wanting anyone breaking into your room at night, but the look of fear on Bash's face was priceless.

"Regardless, we still have the pilot. I'll let you know how it plays out on screen," Mary turned on her computer and started typing up notes.

"What are you writing?" Bash learned toward the screen.

"I'm just writing down notes about what I'll be talking about in the meeting."

"Boss is asking you to conduct the meeting?"

"No," Mary didn't look away from the screen. "Hugo will be there of course but he's asked me to talk about what I've come up with so far. Do you mind if I tell him what we came up with yesterday?"

"Go ahead. The decisions we made yesterday were premature."

Mary looked at the time. "We have to go. Ready?"

Bash stood up, stretching. "It's not like I have to participate."

They walked to the conference room, with Lola giving Mary a post-it note with words written on it. Mary read it, nodded, and handed the note back to her friend.

"Alec won't be joining us," Mary told Bash right before they entered the glass room. "Lola also wanted to mention that Hugo is still in a very bad mood so tread softly. Please do not say anything that would get you on his bad side."

"I'll try not to," Bash and Mary went in. He received a few stares from some of the employees, but nobody said anything when he sat away from them.

"Have the ratings come in from last night?" Colin looked to Mary.

"They don't come in for another hour Colin, you know that. Where's Hugo?"

"Boss is having someone clear out Clarissa's desk," Tomas was writing on paper as he spoke but looked up when he noticed everyone staring at him. "I don't know why he wanted to fire her. She was a good employee."

"She was a lot of help too," Mary had liked the girl. Clarissa had been the one to show Mary the ropes when she had first started out.

"Maybe Hugo will say something about it," Olivia was quick to stop talking as their boss walked into the room.

"Morning everyone. Feet off the table Colin," Hugo sat in a chair at the front of the table. "Ms. Stuart, I hope you have something for us today?"

"Yes sir," Mary went to the front of the room. "They're just suggestions but I'm hoping you might consider them."

"That depends, doesn't it? Go on."

Mary started feeling nervous. When she glanced at Bash, he gave her an encouraging smile. It helped her to relax.

"The first area of concern is regarding the cancellations we'll be doing."

"And why is that your first concern?" Hugo was challenging her. "Why not the renewals or the potential pilots?"

"Sir in all fairness, we haven't made a final decision about the pilots. I'm thinking about the cancellations merely because if we were to make decisions about renewals, the ratings could change and then we would have a harder time with picking a time slot to put them in next year. Deciding which shows to cancel would open up the current slot the show is using."

"I don't understand what you're saying Ms. Stuart. Renewing them would do the same exact thing. We renew the shows and then what's left is canceled," Hugo argued. "We're picking three or four pilots this year, all of them 40 minutes long."

"What's left is canceled? That can't work. All of our shows take a slot of an entire hour, but we can possibly keep one more show that we normally do, especially if we shorten the season. That was one solution that came up yesterday. Both Twister and the Grimm Brothers can receive short final seasons of approximately 10-13 episodes each. We can air them on Friday night at 8:00 or 9:00. One airs in the fall, and the other airs midseason."

"And which program do we show in the other hour? Is there one you want to kill? We certainly can't send any pilots into that slot."

"Well," Mary looked at Bash. They hadn't discussed that. "No?"

Bash shrugged.

"No," Hugo repeated. "Well, that helps a lot, doesn't it?"

Mary saw Bash frown before turning her attention to her boss. "But once we have renewed everything, it can fit a show we're canceling. Or maybe one that can hold its own?"

"Like Fallen? We have that show on a weeknight because it won't die. The reason for its time on Monday night is because the fans follow it wherever it goes."

"I know sir."

"All right, let's forget about Friday night for now," Hugo rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. "Let's start with the shows that you think should be canceled or given a short season and we'll work from there."

"So I mentioned The Grimm Brothers and Twister to you. I think A Dying Wish should be canceled and Parents and Children renewed."

Hugo looked around the room.

"Is something wrong?" Mary asked.

Hugo looked back to her. "Parents and Children is the show with that actor Malcolm Barnes." Mary took a deep breath, knowing a rant was on its way. "I think everyone in this state is aware of the incident that occurred two months ago. This network got so much shit because Mr. Barnes was caught smoking weed behind our building when he was visiting at that time. The creators of the show didn't get blamed. TWE network just looked like some godforsaken careless company that let weed get into the building. And then the idiot thinks he deserves a raise to stay on the show when he was just an unknown a year ago."

"Why not just fire him? List the drugs and embarrassment as a reason. They did that with Two and a Half Men. Took off a lead," Tomas suggested. Hugo gave him a dirty look.

"Are you comparing us to Two and a Half Men?"

"No sir."

"How did we find out about his drug problem?" Olivia asked.

"Drug problem? We didn't find out from him for sure. I can't say who it was but a little birdie told me he's been doing drugs for years. I don't know how he got hired with that problem."

"I think the only person doing drugs here is you since you apparently talk to birds."

Mary closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Out of everything he could have said...

Everyone was silent. If somebody had dropped a pencil at that moment, it would have been heard from the other end of the hallway outside the room. Olivia's mouth dropped open, Natalia looked between Hugo and Bash as if she was in a tennis game, and Tomas was biting his cheeks to keep from smiling (or laughing). Colin looked at a loss of words, while Bash looked at Hugo straight in the eyes.

"And just who might you be?" Hugo asked him.

"No one. He's just a friend I invited who was interested in what I do," Mary walked over to Bash, stood behind him, and put her hands on his shoulders. "This is Sebastian."

"Ms. Stuart, if he was your friend, then you would have told him how to dress when he came here," Hugo gave her a tight smile. "Would you two like to have a little chat before we start again?"

Mary nodded and took Bash by the arm as she led him out. Once they were outside on the street, she turned on him.

"You almost got me fired in there! What the hell is your problem?!" Mary didn't care that the people walking by were looking at them.

"Did you not hear the way he was talking to you and that other guy who brought up Two and a Half Men?"

"What's your point?"

"My point, Mary, is that I didn't like the way he was talking to you. Or anyone else for that matter. Somebody needed to put that man in his place."

"That somebody should not have been you, Sebastian," Mary lowered her voice. "I appreciate what you did for me in there, don't get me wrong, but that was _not_ the way to introduce yourself to the President of the TWE network."

"Sorry," Bash looked at the ground. "I'll try to keep my mouth shut from now on."

"Don't close it for too long," Mary cracked a smile. "You told me you would help me and now you're stuck here. At least, if Alec convinces Hugo."

"And if he doesn't?"

He looked hopeless. Mary had to be honest with him. "I don't know. We'll find a way, even if I have to sneak it by them."

"And get fired for it?"

"Alec loves me. He wouldn't allow it. He's the only person Hugo will listen to, since they respect each other so much."

"I hope you're right."

"Escort a lady back?" She held out her arm and linked it with his. They went back into the conference room. Bash apologized to Hugo (Mary knew he didn't mean a word of it) and sat back down in the corner he had originally been in.

"Parents and Children is a bubble show. I think we should look at how it does on Friday night at 8:00. I think The Grimm Brothers and Twister should go at 9:00. You can choose which one to show in the fall," Mary told Hugo. She felt more confident than she had before. She didn't know if it was because Bash had her (and everyone's) back or because she was starting to understand what it felt like to have a huge responsibility placed on her shoulders. She didn't want to let Hugo or Alec down. She wanted to get this right.

And she didn't want to let Bash down.

Mary knew his hopes weren't very high after the disappointments he'd experienced but she was determined to change that. She was determined to do some good.

"Ms. Stuart?" Hugo's voice brought her back from reality. "Are we losing you?"

Mary blinked a few times. "No sir. Sorry, I was just thinking of how to do this."

Lola saved her at that moment by knocking on the door and giving a note to Natalia, to pass on to Mary.

Mary read it. "Ratings are in. I would say that moving Fallen to either lead into or out of a pilot might be a wise course of action."

"That good?" Colin spoke up.

"Oh, you know. Just your average 10% increase from last week's increase," everyone, inclusing Hugo, looked thrilled at the news. "My Fair Lady increased by 3% in total viewership. Now we just have to see how the latter does next week when Fallen airs a repeat to decide where to put it on the fall schedule."

"Job well done to everyone on last night's ratings," Hugo congratulated everyone. "Were the 18-49 demos good?"

"Both increased."

Mary glanced at Bash. He gave her a thumbs up.

Hugo was in a better mood than he had been after firing Clarissa. Perhaps she could pull if off after all. And maybe, just maybe, Bash would get the chances he deserved.

** Sunday night- I was dead from Captain Swan feels. I might be dead tonight from Olicity feels (who knows if I will get any happy feels from Mash tomorrow). One way to revive me is to get reviews up to 30 (total, not 30 for this one chapter lol). Talk to you all after the finale!**


	7. Keep Your Head Up

**Mary tries to get Bash started. Bash just likes referencing movies about redheaded killer dolls with scissors. . . **

**Oh, and don't think the angst is over. There's a reason why I put it into that category. **

** I'm also inventing a few characters just for plot reasons. =)**

** Filler chapter for the most part...**

_Higher than my income_**_  
_**_my income's breadcrumbs_**_  
_**_I've been trying to survive_

**Keep Your Head Up- Andy Grammer**

She could do it. But that didn't mean it wasn't without complications.

First, Bash needed to work on his social skills. Taking him to get a haircut was much more challenging than she expected. They went right after she was done with work.

"Why do I need a haircut?" he fussed for the 10th time in less than an hour.

"So that you aren't hiding beneath your hair."

"It's not that long. Not long enough to put in a ponytail anyway."

"No, but give or take two weeks and it will be."

Bash scowled then jumped back when the barber whipped out the scissors. "Hey Chucky, do you want to point your scissors somewhere else?"

Mary shook her head. What had she been expecting?

It was worth it though, when Bash got out of the chair and let her take a look. Her jaw would have dropped if she didn't have good self-control. He looked. . . amazing. His eyes were no longer nearly covered by hair.

"Wow," Mary managed to say.

"Thanks. Can we get out of here before I get my throat slit by Chucky over there?" he nodded his head to the man that had given him the haircut.

Mary paid (and tipped the barber), thanking them.

"Really? Chucky?" she rolled her eyes when they were outside.

"Did you not see the way he was handling those scissors? I thought my life was going to end right there in that chair."

Getting him clothing proved to be just as much work. He told her his shoe size and she did her best to find black dress shoes for him to wear to work. Once she got a good look at his bare feet, she knew the blisters would take a very long time to go away. So she bought him tennis shoes until his feet could heal. Bash allowed her to buy socks after she got a good look at the ones on his feet. Mary didn't want his getting any more holes than they already had.

Everyone had the same reaction to Bash's new look as he and Mary went into work the next day. He had split from her after the shopping trip. She didn't ask him where he went, and he didn't tell her. It worked out that way, but that didn't mean Mary wasn't curious.

"He's cute," Natalia caught up with her when Bash was called to see Alec and Hugo. "I didn't get that good of a look at him yesterday."

"We got his hair cut," Mary said simply. She and Natalie had never spoken much before. When they did, it was merely business.

"You have to give him some credit for the way he stood up for everyone yesterday to Hugo," Mary settled at her desk as Natalie rambled on. "I'm glad you didn't get fired."

That was unexpected. "Thank you?"

"I mean, if you were gone, who would bring that boy around?" Natalia walked away before Mary could say another word. She clucked her tongue and sighed in annoyance before going back to work. She should have known Natalia had another reason for talking to her that didn't involve the network.

An hour went by and Mary felt herself growing anxious. Where was Bash?

"Miss me?" she heard him say behind me just as she was about to call Alec. He took the seat that had become his since yesterday, the one placed next to Mary's.

"Not as much as Natalia did. Take your feet off my desk."

He did as she asked. "Are you okay?"

"No," she pounded her fist onto the desk, causing Bash to jump back. A few turned to look at her but said nothing. "I'm tired, I have a headache, and my father called last night to tell me he can't have dinner on Friday."

"He lives in the same city, doesn't he? What's the problem?"

"I was looking forward to it. Now I have to wait until next week."

"So do that."

Mary shot him a glare. Bash remembered his mother's wise words- _women don't want men to solve their problems, they want them to shut up and listen._

So that's what he did.

She ranted for a few minutes before noticing that she had forgotten to ask him about Alec. "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask you how it went with Alec."

"Good," Bash gave her a triumphant smile. "There was a slight disagreement between Alec and Hugo for how long I could stay. Alec wanted to give me three weeks, but Hugo said I have two weeks to impress him."

"That doesn't give us a lot of time, does it? Why do you look so happy about it?"

"It's more than I thought I was getting."

"Are you getting paid?"

"No."

"What? Why not?"

Bash shook his head. "Mary, you didn't hear the rest. If I've impressed him after two weeks, then I go through the whole shebang." When she gave him a blank stare, he continued. "Job interview, security screening, temp assignment, etc. I won't work here as a full-time employee because I'll only be here temporarily until the end of summer."

"That's all?" Mary had been so hopeful she would have done more than that for him. "Where will you be living?"

He didn't answer her last question. "Yes, that's all."

Bash wasn't going to answer and she wasn't going to push. "Are you ready to start then?" She held the manilla folders up. "I was looking them over but I wasn't concentrating. I was worried Hugo or Alec had thrown you out the window up there."

"Alec seems nice. I think it would be more likely for Hugo to do such a thing than Alec."

The phone on her desk rang. She picked it up without looking at the number.

Bash only heard Mary's end. "Mary Stuart, TWE network, how may I help you?" Her face brightened like a summer's day. "Hi daddy!" Bash chuckled to himself. Of course Mary was a daddy's girl. "No, it's fine. I understand." He listened to Mary, only pretending to read what was in the folder. "I'm free next weekend if you want to meet up. . . Really?!" She squealed. "Can you please please do that? . . That would be so much fun!. . Ok daddy, bye." She didn't even wait for Bash to ask. "He's coming to my condo this Sunday for Easter and we're making dinner."

"See? You didn't have to wait until next week."

"I know. I just feel bad because I'm sure my mother will want to do something that day, but I might have to tell her we'll have to get together earlier in the day."

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out."

"I mean, daddy can't cook much without supervision. He only makes pasta and microwaves dinners unless I'm there, but it will be fun." She turned her computer on. "How about we start making a list?"

"A list?"

"Yes, a list of dinners he and I can make."

"Shouldn't you wait until you're home to do that?"

Mary frowned. "Maybe, but this my way of passing the time while I wait for you."

"Why are you waiting for me?" She was acting so odd. One minute she was happy, the next she was moody. "Either you're menstruating or you have something else on your mind."

Mary didn't say anything. The truth was, she had something else on her mind. On Friday, she had gone on a date with a very nice man that her mother worked with. It had gone well- he held the door open for her, he pulled her seat out for her, paid the check, and never once pushed his limits. Even when he tried to get close for a good-bye kiss on the cheek.

Then came the pictures.

Mary groaned inwardly at the memory. Many people would kill to have lots of money, or to be famous. But there were more downsides than upsides to having both than people thought. Having your picture taken at unexpected or inconvenient times was one of the many.

And now the pictures were in just a few of San Diego's many papers. They weren't in her mother's (who refused to print out paparazzi picture of her daughter) but they were there on the streets. People saw her pictures, knew her by name and face, and almost everything she had done. Mary had been raised well but that didn't stop the lies from printing.

The boy she had been on a date with didn't call her back or ask for another one, and she didn't blame him. She wouldn't want to date her either.

_What if they print lies about Bash and take his picture?_ She didn't know why she was worrying about him. Chances were, being alone for so long had taught Bash how to handle himself but it was still a risk Mary didn't want to take. He didn't even know that he had been talking about her that first night they truly met.

At least her co-workers treated her as if she wasn't one of the most well-known people of the city. It was one of the reasons why Mary liked her job so much.

"Mary?"

Bash was looking at her, concerned.

"I'm fine. How are you?"

Bash furrowed his brow. "What?"

"I mean, how's the work coming along? Do you need any help? Are you hungry?"

Bash looked more and more confused by the second. "I'm not very hungry right now, and the work's coming along fine. You were just spacing out."

"I do that a lot. Actually, I have to see Lola for a second. I'll be right back."

_Something's wrong_, Bash thought to himself as he watched Mary walk to her friend. _I wonder what's on her mind._

"Lola," Mary went to her friend, who was fixing herself a cup of coffee.

"Mary, is everything all right?"

"Not really," Mary voiced her concerns as quietly as she could. Lola listened. She had always been one of the best listeners for as long as Mary had known her. "He's always on edge Lola, and I'm afraid people are going to see him and get the wrong idea?"

"Mary, being seen with a man doesn't always mean that everyone will think you two are hooking up. I don't know why you're so worried."

"It has nothing to do with what you're thinking. I just don't think Bash is one who wants to be seen in the public eye. He's not very good with people, at least in my experience."

Lola reached for Mary's hand across the table and held it. "You worry too much about other people. Bash will come through. I hear he made an impression on everyone yesterday, and it seems everything has worked out with Alec and Hugo."

"You have no idea," Mary told her the story of what had happened in the conference room the day before. Lola was laughing by the end of it. "So you see why I'm so worried about his social skills? And Natalia comes up to me today to say how good looking he is and how she's more excited to work with him than me, while looking back I'm thinking she was just looking to get some for herself."

"Knowing Natalia, I would say that's more true than her actually wanting to work. Bash is very cute though," Lola looked over to the subject of their conversation.

"Yes," Mary glanced over at him, "he is, isn't he?"

Lola gave her friend a coy smile, but Mary was glancing at Bash and did not see it.

Bash, on the other hand, was getting restless. It had been so long since he could sit in one place without anywhere to go. He was waiting for Mary to finish talking to Lola. One second in Mary time meant an hour in the real world.

He got up and walked around.

Nobody spoke to him, save for one person who apologized after running into him. It was the blonde guy from yesterday's meeting. Cole, or something like that.

"Can I help you?" a girl walked up to him. It was the brunette from that same meeting that Cole, or whoever he was, had been in.

"I was bored," Bash said simply.

"You're Mary's friend," she gave him a smile. "I'm Natalia, good to have you on board."

"Who says I'm on board?"

"Mary wouldn't have brought you ehre two days in a row if you weren't. I just want to let you know that if you need anything, you can ask me if Mary's not around."

"Thank you Natalia. I'm sure Mary will be around though since she's the one mentoring me, as Alec put it. I appreciate the concern though."

"It wasn't concern," Natalia said as she walked away.

"I see you've met Natalia," she had come at just the right time.

"Where have you been? I was getting so bored," Bash turned around to look at Mary, who was looking at Natalia walk away.

"You'll have to get used to it."

"To what? The flirting or the boredom?"

"What makes you think she was flirting with you?"

Bash emptied his jean pocket. Natalia had tried to be subtle, but Bash had always been good at noticing his surroundings. "She slipped her cell phone number into my pocket. It's one of those situations my brother would have fallen for."

"How so?"

"It would take Francis at least an hour to notice and then when he did, he would call that number to see whose it was."

"Your brother sounds extremely intelligent."

"He's much smarter than I make him sound. It's women he's careless about. Maybe he's had a secret child by now."

"Do you miss him?"

"I miss everyone. Him, our two younger brothers, out sister, my parents." The conversation was getting too emotional for Bash. "But enough of that. Let's get back to work."

Even if they did nothing with work the rest of the day, Mary felt a slight sense of accomplishment. She had gotten him to open up about his emotions a little more. He kept the same expression in his eyes, but there was a mask somewhere. There had to be.

"Do you want to go out for lunch? I could use some food," Mary didn't wait for an answer. She took her purse and headed to the elevator. It was up to Bash to decide if he would go with her or not. He chose to go with her.

"Where are we going?" he asked, after spending a moment in silence.

"I think I would like a milkshake," she said. "How about you?"

"A milkshake sounds good, but that's a little harder to swipe than what I normally do," they got off the elevator.

They carried on walking. As they got to the front door of the building, Mary placed her hand on the door handle but stopped as she opened it. "What did you mean by 'swipe'?"

Bash could have laughed it off, but with the look she was giving him added with the fact that he had spoken without thinking, there was no way out. "I usually just swipe things. It started when I ran out of money."

Mary slammed the door closed. Penelope raised her eyebrows, too busy filing her nails to pay any attention.

"We are NOT-" Mary glanced at Penelope and lowered her voice "stealing anything."

"I know. It was a joke."

Mary walked out of the building, Bash following close behind.

"Maybe I want a doughnut," Mary walked quickly as she went on a hunt for lunch. Bash struggled to keep up (she was _fast_) and nearly lost her more than once.

"I'm not going to chase you," Bash called after her.

"Then wait where you are. I'll be right back," Mary went into a shop and came back out with a bag. Bash was waiting patiently for her at the street corner. "I bought something for you," she handed him a small slice of pizza.

"It's pepperoni," she said, as if it hadn't been obvious.

"Thanks," Bash hadn't had pizza for a very long time. The slice in his hands did not disappoint.

"They have tables inside if you would rather sit. Or would you like go back to the office?"

"How much longer do we have?"

Mary checked her (what had to be) thousand dollar watch. "I prefer eating out of the office but I won't complain if you say otherwise."

"Let's stay here."

They went back to the shop and found a table near the back. Mary looked around at the customers, eating an ice cream cone. Bash was momentarily distracted by the way she licked it, as if to savor every bite.

"- for Easter?"

"Hmmm?" Bash looked up from her mouth to her eyes. She had still been looking at every other person, but turned her attention to him.

"I said, what are you doing for Easter?"

"The same thing I've been doing for years. Nothing. What about you?"

"I'm Catholic. I'll be busy this weekend, but I won't bore you with the details."

"My father and his wife were Catholic. I know the traditions."

"What about you?"

Bash shrugged. "I was never into any religion very much."

They ate the rest of their lunch in silence. The pizza had been heaven for Bash and Mary had certainly enjoyed her ice cream, she ate it faster than he had eaten his slice.

Back at the office, Mary decided they should be productive. "Would you like to see the pilots? I think I might be able to get a hold of them."

"You want me to watch the pilots?"

"If you want to."

"I want to see the one that sounded like The X-Files."

"Are you a fan of that show?"

Bash nodded. "Have you ever watched it? It's brilliant. The writing, the cast, the scenery. Doesn't hurt how that Gillian Anderson is pretty hot."

"I should have known that would be your reason," Mary sighed.

"What's yours for liking a show?"

"Oh, I don't know Bash. Quality? Acting?" She was being sarcastic and he knew it. "Everything that a good show should have. I stick to quality shows instead of the reality shows we have too many of these days. I don't need to know who the next pregnant teenager is. Do you remember when MTV had music instead of reality shows?"

"Those days seem to be long gone."

"Of course, it's sad how many music videos are trashy and more about sex appeal than about the music. I guess sex really does sell."

Bash thought for a moment. "Mary, how are we getting to New York?"

"I was thinking of flying but that was before you came into the picture."

Bash smiled and Mary frowned. She didn't like that evil smile he had on his face. It made her wonder what he had on his mind.

"What are you thinking, Sebastian?"

The truth? He immediately thought of a road trip even when he knew there was not a single chance of her agreeing to it. The smile washed off his face when he thought back to a car trip he had with his father's family a few years ago. It had been the most headache-inducing, long, and tiring trip of his life. But that was because one person hated him, another wouldn't stop talking, and another (his father) had awful taste is music.

"Nothing Mary. Now what you saying about some pilots?"

** So should we get a Mash road trip to New York for the Upfronts? You decide! How will Bash get there?**

** I won't write much this next week. Tonight my family and I are going out to eat at the Bilbo Baggins restaurant for my bday dinner since Tuesday is my birthday, Wednesday I'm going to see the Monkees in concert (Awwww yeah!) and Thursday I'm seeing my brother and his wife and their adorable baby boy whose 15 months.**

** Sorry about the delay! I had a really hard time with the chapter title (sorry excuse, I know). Reviews would be nice! =D 3**


	8. Counting Stars

** Biggest apology for the two-week delay! Also, thank you for the kind reviews that you have left! They really help to keep an author going... hint hint =) **

** Italics are character's thoughts, unless it's one word in a sentence in which case I'm emphasizing it, if that makes sense. All mistakes are mine!**

** Sometimes you just have to look appropriate for sponsors . . . (I made up two characters- the "stiffs" as Bash calls them). I'm also pretending to know about business and contracts even though my major is Criminal Justice. Oh well, that's why the word fiction is in fanfiction**

_Old, but I'm not that old__  
__Young, but I'm not that bold__  
__And I don't think the world is sold__  
__I'm just doing what we're told_

**Counting Stars- OneRepublic****  
**

Mary went into work on Monday morning, smiling. Last week had been a complete success with Bash (he had actually enjoyed the pilot that was similar to The X-Files), she'd had a fantastic Easter Sunday with both of her parents (separately), caught up on some much-needed sleep, and now she felt ready to handle anything that would no doubt be thrown her way at work today.

Entering the building, a coffee cup in one hand, Mary smiled warmly at Penelope and made her way to the office.

She went into the break room to take a doughnut, and sat at her desk.

"Mary, you have a meeting with the sponsors for tonight's episode of My Fair Lady," Lola rushed to Mary's desk.

"What time?" Mary asked through the mouthful of her doughnut.

"12:30."

Mary sighed, frustrated. "At lunch? Could it not have been scheduled for an earlier time?"

"Afraid not. It was the only time they could meet. We're not the only busy company in this city," Lola reminded her.

"I know, I know," Mary laid her head on her desk.

Lola started glancing around. "Where's Sebastian?"

Mary's head shot up. She should have known better than to expect a stress-free day. "So that's what I'm forgetting."

"How could you forget? You're his mentor!" Lola cried out.

"Look, I haven't seen him since Friday and I have no way to reach him. In my defense, he has no phone and no address. Do you think you could find him for me?"

"How can I find him if you don't know where he lives or how to get a hold of him?"

"I don't know."

"Mary-"

"Look, ask Natalia. She was the one fluttering her eyelashes at him last week. I'm sure she would be thrilled for a chance to put her stalking skills to use."

Lola sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

"What else is on the calendar for today?"

"Just the meeting. And Alec wishes to talk to you when you have a minute."

Mary groaned. It was just her luck that today was the day Bash had chosen to go missing. How was she going to explain this to her supervisor?

"I might as well head on to my death sentence," Mary stood up and walked to the elevator, muttering, "after everything I have done for him..."

A few miles away, Bash opened his eyes. What time was it? And why did he feel so warm?

He looked out of his car window. The sun was shining rather brightly in his face. _That seems odd for so early in the morning. . . Unless it's not so early in the morning. _

Bash sat up quickly. _Oh hell. Mary's going to murder me. _

"Shit!" Bash climbed to the driver seat and looked at his reflection.

He was sunburned. Bash quickly turned on his car to look at the time before turning it off again. Yep, he was most screwed.

9:32.

_I'm likely going to die within the next hour. Maybe I should start saying good-bye to people._

Bash had taken this into account when he first started sleeping here. The sun wasn't supposed to hit him directly but today it had broken its promise. Now he had to go into the office with his face and body looking like a tomato.

He didn't even take the new clothes Mary had bought him. Normally he would have gone into a public restroom and changed but he didn't have time.

Of course, he didn't think to change at her office. Instead, he ran through the streets and tried not to get hit (he nearly did several times, the swearing from the drivers let him know that). He made it to Mary's in record time, out of breath and sweaty. The girl at the front desk, Penelope, looked up, her mouth forming an "O" at the sight of him.

"Are you all right?" she asked him. "You look terrible."

"No worse than the first time you ever saw me," he answered bitterly, reminding her of what she had asked him the first time she saw him. "I'm late but I need Mary to come down."

"I'll call her," Penelope picked up a phone and dialed. She said nothing before hanging up. "She's not answering."

"Can you try her assistant, Lola?"

"I can try," Penelope didn't seem convinced but did so anyway. "Lola! It's Penelope. . . I'm good! Listen, I have someone here who's looking for Mary. . ." she covered the mouthpiece and spoke to Bash. "Are you Sebastian?" Bash nodded and Penelope took her hand off the mouthpiece. "Yes. . . He wants Mary to come down. . .I'll tell him, thank you," she hung up the phone.

"I thought Mary had told you my name," Bash said.

"She didn't, but Lola is coming down to get you. Mary's meeting with Alec so she is unable to meet you right now."

"How do you still not know my name? Don't you have to know the name of every employee that works here?"

"I see their tags. And you have a temporary one. That's all I need to know," Penelope went back to filing her nails.

"Sebastian!" Lola was walking towards him. She stopped. "What happened to you?"

"Why is my sunburn such a shock to you people? Has nobody gotten sunburned before? Would I get such a reaction if I was tan?"

"Do you always burn this easily?" Lola led him to the elevators.

"I usually," Bash stopped himself. The word "steal" might not be so well received. "I usually _borrow_ sunscreen from friends. I don't sleep in often."

The doors opened. They stepped in. "If it makes you feel any better, Mary and I both have fair skin. We would look just as bad as you if we didn't take care," She pressed a button. "That being said, it would really make quite a sight to Hugo and Alec, seeing you like this. I'm going to need to get help on making you less red."

"So why is being sunburned such a bad thing around here?"

"Normally, nobody would care. But Mary has to meet some sponsors for tonight's shows and I wouldn't be surprised if Hugo crashes her meeting with Alec."

"Does that man have nothing better to do than to breathe down Mary's neck?"

"Mary has a big responsibility right now. He needs to meet her with her at least a few times a week."

Bash shook his head. "That man is like a dragon breathing fire down your neck."

"A dragon," Lola repeated. "Never heard anyone call him that."

They got off the elevator. "Why are we here? I thought we were going to wait for Mary at her desk?" Bash asked.

"We need her help," Lola walked to Alec's office and knocked on the door. Alec peered at them through the glass and waved his hand.

Lola and Bash walked in.

"Trying out for a new look, Poitiers?" Alec asked with a smirk on his face.

Mary, on the other hand, did not look amused, but rather horrified. "What, did you get stuck in the chimney?"

Bash looked to Lola, confused.

"You have a lot of dirt on your face as well," Lola explained.

Bash had grown so accustomed to never being clean that he no longer noticed the dirt on him.

"Dirt? More like coal," Mary bit her lip. "Alec, can you excuse us? We have a bit of an emergency here," Alec nodded. "Thank you so much. Tell Hugo I'll be with him shortly. Tell him lady problems or something." She took Bash's arm.

Once in the elevator, Mary turned and looked closely at Bash's face. "I wanted you to join me in my meeting with the sponsors today." She looked him up and down. "Where are the clothes I bought you?"

"Um, I kind of left them," Bash admitted.

Mary took a deep breath before the elevator stopped to let them out. Mary led Bash the other way from her desk.

"Where are we going? Your desk is that way," Bash asked Mary as she walked in front of him. She stopped at a door and opened it.

She had gone to the Men's room. All the men in there turned to look at her. "Everybody out. Except you, Colin. I could use your help."

The young guy nodded, bewildered.

"The Ladies room is the other one," one man said to her. The other men, minus Colin, started to laugh.

Mary, Bash, and Lola walked in (though Bash and Lola were only following Mary). Mary shut the door behind them and walked up to the man, mere inches from his face. "Get. Out."

The man nodded and left. The others followed.

"Is she usually this terrifying?" Bash whispered to Lola.

"Only when she's stressed," Lola whispered back. "Not to mention she's well-known around this area so everyone listens to her more than they would if she wasn't."

Before Bash could ask Lola what she meant by that, Mary called him over to the sinks. She wet a paper towel and motioned him to stand in front of her.

"Colin," she started to wipe Bash's face with the paper towel. "I need you to do us a favor. Bash left his clothes in the place he stays at. I don't know where that is and he won't tell me so I need you to get him some fresh clothes. Do you still have a spare shirt hanging around?"

"Sure, but I don't think it'll fit him. He's taller than I am."

"Then I guess it's a good thing we don't need you to lend him your pants," Mary threw away the towel and wet another one. "Chin up," she told Bash. She wiped down his neck.

"Let me go get the shirt then," Colin left the bathroom.

"Thank you Colin," Mary said absentmindedly, still wiping Bash's neck.

Lola walked up to them. "Do you need anything else, Mary?"

"I should have some make-up in my bag. Would you be able to bring it to us? I might have something to help with the red."

"Of course," Lola left the two of them alone.

"So can I ask, why is my red face a big deal?"

Mary threw away the second towel and smiled at him. "We work at a television network Bash. When you turn on the television and watch a show, what do you see? Beautiful people. Hugo wants his staff to look just as nice and well-kept as the actors that work on our shows."

"Why? You don't have the same jobs."

"I know, but you should always look nice for work."

"So the sunburn-"

"Is no big deal usually, but like I said, network television likes people who look good. Especially since actors, show-runners, or producers come by often. You should see the actors. Some of them are the type you would see in a glamour magazine."

"Hey, you are too," Bash admitted.

Mary gave him a sheepish smile. "Thanks but there's a reason I work at a network studio and not in front of a camera, and that has nothing to do with the fact that I can't act."

"That's not true, you're better looking that half the girls I see on television. And you have more class than any reality TV star, that's for sure."

Mary's eyes locked with his. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted.

"Found it!" Lola ran into the bathroom with Mary's bag on her arms. "I hope you don't mind, I brought the entire bag. I'm not sure how many stares I would have attracted walking into the men's bathroom with make-up."

"Don't you attract stares coming into the men's room anyway?" Bash asked her as Lola started taking out the make-up.

"Yes, but they'll just think I walked into the men's room instead of the elevator."

"How would you mistake those two?" Bash looked at Mary and shook his head. This was one interesting network company.

"Hand me the brush," Mary held out her hand and started putting powder onto Bash's face. He didn't even want to know the outcome of this but the two girls got to work and finished within minutes. "Still some red but that's fine," she turned Bash around to have him look at the mirror. "What do you think?"

He stared at her blankly. "I need to give an opinion?"

"Yes!" both girls exclaimed.

"Hold on, I see a smear," Mary turned him back around to face her, licked her finger, and fixed the smudge on his face with it. "Better."

"He looks great," Lola said to Mary.

"Are you sure I don't look like a clown with all of this? This is women's stuff on my face," Bash asked warily.

Mary put her hands on her hips. "Would I make you look like a clown? No, it looks very natural. I think you look great."

Bash had to admit, most of the red was gone. Except for his nose, which he pointed to. "I look like Rudolph."

Both girls rolled their eyes. "People tend to have redder noses," Lola told him as Mary put the make-up back in her bag. "Mary, the meeting doesn't start for another 50 minutes. Should the three of us get some lunch?"

"Outside? I already got burned once," Bash reminded her, still looking at his nose.

"We'll give you a cute sun hat," Mary told him sweetly. Lola giggled.

"That's funny," Bash said, looking away from the mirror. "Where were you thinking?"

"If you don't want to go outside, we can get food from the cafeteria downstairs or I can run to a cafe and bring food back," Lola suggested.

Mary started to look around. "Let's eat at the cafeteria since I'm still waiting for Colin. Where the bloody hell is he?"

"Maybe he left the shirt at home and went to get it."

"Colin may have done me many favors when I first came here, but I don't think he would do that much. He would have told me if his shirt wasn't here and he said it was. I'm hoping he comes with it soon."

He came a minute later, out of breath.

"I left it in my car," he gasped. "It's a black shirt though."

"That's perfect," Colin handed the shirt to Mary. "It will fit him. Bash, we'll let you change and meet you at my desk."

The three of them left Bash in the bathroom. He went into the stall to change. Mary, Lola, and Colin were sitting at Mary's desk when he came out. They were too busy looking at something on the computer screen when Bash came up behind them.

"What is that?" Bash leaned closer, putting his head between Mary and Colin's.

"The hotel we'll be staying at during the week of the upfronts. The network is paying for it since it's considered a work trip. What do you think?"

"Looks nice," what else could he say?

"It is," Mary clicked off it. "Now, shall we eat? I'm starving. Colin, you should join us so that Bash can meet a few more men around here that are closer to his age. I'll buy your lunch for you as a thank you for the shirt."

Bash immediately felt guilty. He should have been the one paying for Colin's lunch, but that was not an option when he didn't have money.

"Don't worry about it," Mary whispered to him as Lola and Colin walked ahead of them. "I think he knows."

"I can pay you back. Or I can take something from your favorite store and-"

"_Don't_," Mary warned. "As much as I love accessories, I don't want to be one in a theft."

The cafeteria was full and noisy. The only thing it had to distinguish it from being a school cafeteria was the much better food. Bash sat a table to "hold it" as the others got something to eat. His stomach was growling, but he had learned to ignore it months ago.

"Aren't you getting anything to eat?" Mary sat next to him.

He gave her a look.

"I would buy it for you, as long as you didn't complain like you did last week with your haircut."

"Hey," Bash defended himself. "That man did not know how to hold his scissors. You can't blame me for saying something about it."

"Bash," Mary opened her wallet and handed him a $10. "Go get some lunch."

He waited in line, ignoring the looks people gave him for his worn-out jeans. He got his lunch and ended up with $2.56 in change.

Seeing the other three together, laughing and talking like friends, made him Bash feel something. Was it the feeling of being left out? Possibly.

_This is the problem with being alone for so long. Half the time, I don't even know what I'm feeling_. Of course, he felt gratitude towards Mary and Alec. Lola had been nothing but kind to him despite his circumstances, so he felt grateful to her too. And now Colin had gotten him out of a jam. _Maybe this network won't be so bad after all. _

"We saved your seat," Mary was still sitting in the same seat. Lola was across from her and Colin from him.

"Here's the change," Bash handed her the money.

"We were just discussing the upfronts," Colin told him. "Mary told me what you're doing. Congrats, sounds like you're going to have your plate full."

"Three more weeks until it even starts. TWE may be paying for the hotels and flights, but there is a matter concerning that that I'll need to talk to you about," Mary looked across to Lola and Colin, both of whom were eating.

"Fine," Bash didn't make eye contact with anyone as the three began discussing the upfronts in more detail. He didn't know any of the names they were dropping, save a few (actors mostly). It sounded like they were going to have a lot of fun in New York.

"You're coming too, right?"

Bash didn't hear Lola's question. It wouldn't have been directed at him anyways.

Mary nudged him in the side with her elbow. "Sebastian's coming. I wouldn't dare to have him miss it."

Bash looked up from his plate. "Miss what?"

Colin looked at the other two. "What we've been talking about this entire time."

"Oh, right, the upfronts," Bash shrugged. "I don't see how I can get there."

The other three exchanged looks. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about, but we can do it another time," Mary whispered to him.

They finished their lunch quickly and headed back to their desks upstairs. Colin had his own meeting with a shows producers that he had to attend to with Hugo. Mary and Bash went into the conference room with Lola.

"Do we have everything we need?" Mary asked Lola, who handed her a small stack of papers. "I hope they're not as bad as that man Richard from Sea World I met with two weeks ago."

Bash turned around in his seat to look outside the conference room. "Are those the stiffs?" he asked, referring to the two people in suits.

"Most likely, but _try_ not to call them that. Leave the talking to me," Mary stood up and turned around. "Welcome, I'm Mary Stuart. This is Sebastian Poitiers and my assistant, Lola. They'll be listening in if that's all right with you."

The man and the woman nodded and sat down at the table.

"So, let's get started. I hear you have some concerns about the budget you put into the show's final two episodes of the season," Mary opened a thin black book. "How may we assist you with that?"

"The budget is too high for us," the woman answered firmly.

Bash frowned. He didn't appreciate her tone, but he decided to keep his mouth shut for the time being.

"I don't understand. You already invested your money into the show and the episodes have already been shot," Mary looked confused. "Which episode had too high of a budget?"

"Both. We would like $10,000 back that we never meant to put in," the man said.

Mary's mouth dropped open. "$10,000?! Did you not go over this with your budget team beforehand?"

"We had to invest in another deal right after. We needed more company computers," the man answered before the woman could.

Mary was at a loss for words. They had never had anything happen like this before. What was she supposed to do now?

Bash leaned closer and scanned the pages.

"May I?" he asked a stunned Mary, taking the little black book without an answer. "Since you dumbasses can't budget your own money properly," he ignored the gasps from Lola and Mary, "and already signed a contract," he held up a sheet, "about how much money you were putting in, we can't give you your money back." Bash held the paper up for the other two to see. "You offered to put in $100,000 into the show throughout the year. So far, you've invested $60,000 into a total of three episodes. And then you gave $20,000 for each of the final two episodes, which is the same amount you put into each of the episodes before. Correct me if I'm wrong but, looking at this contract, I would say this network does not owe you any money."

Mary glanced at the man and woman across the table.

"Are you trying to scam us?" Bash questioned.

"Sebastian!" Mary hissed.

"It's a serious question," Bash told her, pretending to look and sound innocent. He looked to the man and woman in suits. "Somebody on your budget team should be fired for this mistake, but it's certainly not this network's." He handed them the contract and previous records to look over.

There was no arguing, much to Mary's surprise. They nodded and left, the man already talking angrily on the phone.

"You talked," Mary told Bash.

"No, I saved your ass," he reminded her. "Don't everyone thank me at once."

Mary's expression softened. "Thank you, Sebastian. Truly," she sighed. "I think I just froze on the spot, but I would hope I would have found it eventually. I'm still new at this."

"So My Fair Lady on this network is a modern adaptation? That would explain a car company wanting to advertise a Toyota," Bash wondered out loud.

"You should watch it sometime. The movie and the musical. The movie had one of Mary's favorite actresses, Audrey Hepburn," Lola stood up with Mary.

"It's not Shakespeare?" Bash asked, confused. The title had sounded like it would surely be written by Shakespeare.

"No Sebastian, it's most definitely not," Mary laughed with Lola. "I have the movie at my place. I'll have to have a work party there and then we can all see it."

"Audrey Hepburn, you say?" Bash looked to Lola.

"Yes."

"Huh," Bash chuckled. "I guess I'm up for it. If I'm invited," Mary didn't miss his voice going soft, as if he wanted nobody to hear.

"Of course you are Bash!" Mary smiled then frowned. "Wait a minute. Is the reason you want to watch this movie the same reason you have for watching The X-Files?" Bash didn't say anything. "Really, Bash? Really?" She and Lola started to leave the room.

"Hey, Audrey Hepburn is a classy lady!" he called after them.

He didn't say anything about it for the rest of the day. He and Mary spent much of the afternoon discussing favorite books and movies (with an occasional phone call Mary had to answer), with Alec coming down 10 minutes before the end of the day. He looked at Bash's face and complimented Mary on the work she put in to cover his sunburn.

"Bash?" Mary was packing up. "Promise me you will be much more, classy, in your choice of words with sponsors. You lucked out with Hugo and those two people in there today."

"Maybe I'm just getting lucky. Or not, because it always ends up backfiring,"

She reached out to touch his arm. "Or maybe you were so negative that you never paid any attention to the good."

"Am I that pessimistic?"

"Sometimes. You certainly are whenever you go into that conference room. You would make a great businessman if you chose to words more wisely," Mary looked around. "Where are you going when we leave?"

"Back. Back to where I stay."

"And may I ask where that is?"

"Maybe another day," Bash walked down with her after they waved good-bye to Natalia (who was still sending gooey-eyed looks Bash's way every time he was around) and Tomas (who was not doing such a thing).

"I have an idea," Mary opened the door of the building. "You've heard of netflix, haven't you?"

Bash stopped. "Mary, I may not be in the loop for a lot of things, but I know what netflix is."

"Well, the other two I came across something very interesting on netflix. It's this show about two people named Mulder and Scully. . ."

"Sounds familiar," Bash said, a smile forming on his face.

"Let's go to my condo and marathon it. I'll race you to the car," Mary started running.

"What?" Bash took a minute to process that. "Oh, that's mature!" he called, running after Mary.

**How did you like that? Reviews are love!**


	9. Dirty Little Secret

** So I realized I should clarify something. In the third chapter, I said the top floor is where the conference room was, but there is another conference room where Mary works (since she said her supervisor is on the floor above her) and that is the one they typically use. For the story's sake, let's say Mary works on the 18th floor, Alec is on the 19th, and the top floor is the 20th. **

**Thank you for all the awesome reviews. I hope I replied to them. Except Guest- come out of hiding AND LET ME LOVE YOU!**

_ Tell me all that you've thrown away__  
__Find out games you don't wanna play__  
__You are the only one that needs to know_

_**Dirty Little Secret- All-American Rejects**_

__"Why are you standing up?" Mary looked up at Bash.

She was on the couch, covered with a blanket and a hot chocolate on her lap. Once they were inside her condo, she had gone to her room and changed into sweats. Then she had gone to the bathroom to take off her make-up and wash her face. Even without make-up, she was still one of the most beautiful girls Bash had ever seen. He stood awkwardly next to the couch.

"You have nice furniture," he pointed to where she was sitting.

"Thank you, but I don't see how that's a reason for you to be standing up."

"I don't want to ruin it," Bash said sheepishly.

Mary pursed her lips and grabbed his arm, tugging him down to the sofa. "You won't ruin it. Where did you get such an idea?"

Bash didn't speak when the episode started. They watched three episodes of The X-Files in a row before Bash called it a night. And it ended the same way it did every night. Bash left and Mary never asked where he would go. That wasn't to say the rest of the week would be the same. In fact, it wasn't.

__Word traveled fast about Bash and the sponsors. Lola told Colin and after that, everyone in the office knew thanks to Colin's big mouth. Hugo and Alec found out when they overheard Tomas telling Olivia at the vending machines. Hugo asked Bash to stay an extra week longer than planned.

And then the nicknames started.

"Bash the Basher" was a reference to bashing sponsors who tried to rip off companies, at least that was what Mary thought. Then there was "Bash the Destroyer," "Sebastian the Crashin" (whatever _that_ meant), and the most popular, "Ass-kicker". That one was Mary's personal favorite.

Bash's rise to fame in the office gave Mary attention she didn't want. Some were girls she didn't know, asking for more information about Bash (question most asked was for his phone number, which she couldn't provide).

It seemed Thursday was a national holiday called "Corner Mary Stuart everywhere she goes and ask her about Sebastian Poitiers." The ending time appeared to be right after lunch.

Mary breathed a sigh of relief as she entered the ladies room and found nobody there. She rinsed her face and looked back up into the mirror.

And screamed.

"Clarissa!" She yelled. "Don't do that!"

Clarissa, a girl most would find strange if they didn't know her, stood behind her. She was notorious for scaring people in the most unusual ways with her pranks. The most heard of had occurred two months ago on a rainy Wednesday night when it was Olivia's turn to stay late and watch the shows (the shows were watched on the big screen in the conference room). Clarissa had taken it upon herself to scare the pants off of poor Olivia by placing a brown lunch bag over her head and standing next to the glass when lightning flashed. Rumor was it didn't end well for Clarissa, who was chewed out by Olivia in front of everyone the next day.

"Is it true? You found him on the streets?"

Mary did her best not to let out the frustrated sigh that was threatening to escape. She had almost made it somewhere without being cornered by fangirls. "Partly. _He_ found _me_."

"What do you mean he found you? I heard he has nowhere to live."

Mary placed her hands on her hips. "And who told you that?" Clarissa worked for Customer Service down on the 2nd floor. There was absolutely no way she was hearing things from the 18th floor.

"Everyone's talking about it," Clarissa seemed excited. "So it's true then?"

"Bash told me he has somewhere to sleep but he won't tell me where. So if you're hearing this where you work, then the whole building must be talking about it."

"A group started forming during lunch yesterday, so of course everyone wanted to know why. Your boy was the topic of conversation that day."

"Joy," Mary muttered. She cleared her throat. "It was nice seeing you around Clarissa but I should go back to my desk. I'll talk to you again soon." _Hopefully with a different topic of choice._

Clarissa watched as Mary left the ladies room. Mary looked around at her co-workers, most of whom were at their respective desks. She had a few ideas over who was talking about Bash to everyone in the building. At first her guess was Colin. But then it was more likely that he had only spoken to the people on their floor. If the whole building knew, that raised a whole lot more questions.

She approached one of her suspects.

"Natalia?" Mary asked sweetly. Natalia turned around in her chair. "Have you heard what they're calling Bash now?"

"Oh, I heard," Natalia smiled at her. "Everyone is calling him the ass-kicker."

"I admit, it has a nice ring to it," Mary sat at the corner of Natalia's desk. "What's your favorite name they're using?"

"That one. And Bash the Basher," Natalia snickered. Mary didn't even bother to ask. "You know what they're calling you two though, don't you?"

"Us two? Do you mean Bash and I?"

"Yeah."

"No, I haven't. Tell me," Mary urged.

"I don't know if I heard this right, but it sounded like Mash. Is that right?" Natalia asked more to herself than Mary. "Yes, I think that's right," she answered her own question.

"Mash? As in the show, or as in that game we all played in High School?"

"High School? Olivia and I still play it at work when we're bored," Natalia chuckled. "No, no. Mash as in Mary and Bash put together. That's the less graphic use of the term. Some people think he's working here because you two are mashing your-"

"You know what? I don't need to know," Mary stood up. "I'm heading back. Speaking of," she looked around. "where's Bash?"

"Oh, Colin and Tomas took him out for lunch."

Mary's jaw dropped. "Are they out of their minds? He just ate, he'll get sick."

"Bash is a big kid, he can handle it. Besides, they didn't take him to a restaurant. They only went out to get a soup or sandwich from the deli a few blocks down."

That didn't stop Mary from worrying. When Bash came back, he looked perfectly fine.

At least, he did for a few hours. It was right before they were leaving that it changed.

"Mary," Bash wheezed. "I don't feel so good," Mary turned from her computer to look at Bash. He looked sick. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Mary stood up so quickly she nearly knocked her chair over. Had he waited this whole time to tell her this? Lunch was hours ago!

"I need to get some fresh air," he told her.

"Air? You need to put your head over the toilet!" She argued.

"I haven't always had that option when I was by myself on the streets," he shuddered. "This may come as a surprise to you, but there aren't always bathrooms available a few feet down."

"But you have one close by now!"

If there was one thing that Sebastian was, it was stubborn. Mary had come to see this every time she was around him.

"Just-" he took deep breaths. "Get the elevator."

Get the elevator? She was going to run to it. She took her purse, ran to the elevator, and pressed the down button repeatedly. "Come on, come on, come on!" She helped Bash get up from his chair and walk to it. He leaned on her while they waited, her arm around his waist and one of his arms draped over her shoulders.

"Get in," she pressed the button to the lobby more times than was necessary. _Please don't let him throw up in here. Please don't let him throw up in here_, she repeated the words in her head until they reached the lobby.

Mary opened the door in a hurry.

Bash bent over and put his head down, his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths.

Mary put her hand on his back. "Better?"

He nodded. "I think so," he stood up straight. "I haven't eaten so much at once since I lived with the family. Maybe having a second lunch wasn't my best idea."

"Natalia said it was Colin and Tomas who took you out."

"They did, but they seemed unsure when I got both a soup and a sandwich. Tomas paid for it though without complaining."

"That was nice of him."

"He paid for both Colin and I. The guy comes from money, doesn't he?"

Mary took her hand off his back. "Tomas? Yes, he does."

"I should get going," Bash started to head the other way. "I'll throw up in my mouth if it comes back again. It's happened before."

"I'll pretend you didn't say that," Mary told him. "You know, I'm going to have to follow you one of these days to find out where you go. The suspense is killing me," She placed her hands behind her back and looked at him from underneath her eyelashes, giving him the most innocent look she could muster. "Did nobody tell you that it's not polite to keep a girl waiting?"

Bash pursed his lips and looked at her. She was giving him that look on purpose, but damn it, he couldn't say no. "Fine," he finally said

She beamed and clapped her hands. "Good!"

He led her down his usual route. "I have to make a quick stop if that's okay," she nodded. They walked for a while before he went into a pit stop. "Hey Aylee!" he greeted the small girl at the front. "Castleroy around?"

"He's in the back," she answered.

Bash started heading towards the storage room. "The other back. Out back!" Aylee called after him.

Bash went outside and saw Castleroy sitting in a lawn chair, eating...peppers?

"Are you eating those plain?" Bash asked the older man. He looked disgusted.

"They're delicious," Castleroy said, smiling down at the peppers he was eating straight out of a Tupperware container. "Want one?"

"No, because then I really would throw up."

Castleroy saw Mary standing behind Bash, and stood up. "And who is this lovely young lady?" He smiled at her. "I'm Mr. Castleroy, but most just leave out the word Mister," he held out his hand.

"Mary Stuart," she shook his hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Are you a friend of Sebastian's?"

"Friend? Ha!" Castleroy sat back down and looked at Bash. "You haven't told her about me? I'm a little hurt," He peered closely. "Sunbathing have we, Sebastian?"

Bash looked at the man. He's shaved off his mustache and beard and looked 10 years younger. "Did your wife finally make you shave?"

"I did it because I wanted to," Castleroy put lots of attention to the peppers on his lap.

Bash looked closely at him. "How long was she lecturing you?"

"Longer than I thought she needed to," he glared at Bash. "What do you need?"

"Just a few things."

Bash went inside, leaving Mary alone to watch Castleroy eat peppers.

"So how do you know him?" Castleroy asked her in between bites. "I didn't want to say this in front of him, but I've read a lot about you. You're quite famous around here and I can't imagine a situation where your paths would have crossed unless by some divine intervention."

"He saved me from getting hit by a car."

"Really?" he looked interested. "Now that's a story I want to hear," he stood up from his chair and offered it to her. "Sit. I want to hear what happened." He sat on the ground.

When Bash came back outside, Castleroy and Mary were talking a mile a minute.

"What did I miss?" He sat on the ground next to Castleroy.

"I was just telling him how we met," Mary answered.

"You never told me any of this," Castleroy patted him on the back. "There was no need to be so modest about it."

"Which one are you telling him?" Bash asked her.

"About the car. But I could tell him about the soup kitchen," Mary started telling the story about that day, including how Bash had tried to give her the name of his brother, Francis. "He's a terrible liar."

The man sitting next to Bash laughed. "Really, son? I hate to tell you this, but you don't even look like a Francis."

"I know," Bash started to get embarrassed. "Can we change the topic now?"

"I told you going to the soup kitchen that day would do you some good. You got a filling meal and met a beautiful young lady at the same time." Castleroy elbowed him in the ribs and winked, just as Bash's ears went red. He was thankful his hair was covering his ears. "I better go back inside to check on everything. You two have a good night."

"Good night," Mary and Bash both said.

"Does he normally just let you take whatever you need? Wouldn't the prices for everything else go up?"

Bash shrugged. "It's not like he can give me everything I ask for. The store makes good money so he spares what's left. Some things are there for so long that it makes sense to give away."

"I don't see how that makes sense, but I'll believe you."

The two of them sat in comfortable silence. Bash even went inside to get a hot dog, despite Mary's protests that he had just nearly been sick.

"I brought you one," he came back with two hot dogs. "Try them. They're better than anything you could get on the street."

Mary took a bite. "Wow."

"Good?" Bash took a bite from his own hot dog.

"Very good."

The ate their hot dogs in silence, once in a while talking about the people at work. Mary asked Bash if he had heard the nicknames people were using for him.

"Yeah, why are they calling me the Destroyer as if I'm some Transformer? Because I don't get it," he asked her.

She laughed. "I don't know. You would have to ask them."

They cleaned up after themselves and went inside to throw away the paper plates and say good-bye to Aylee and Castleroy.

"You two have a lovely evening. Don't be afraid to come around more often, dear," Castleroy called after them.

"Geez," Bash muttered. He knew what Castleroy wanted Bash to take away from that. Unless he was calling him "dear". Unlikely.

He walked Mary to his car and looked for the reaction on her face when he did.

"What is this?" She asked.

"My car," he answered.

"Your car?" she looked puzzled. "Why don't you ever drive this to work instead of walking?" she stopped when she saw the look he was giving her. "Oh."

"First thing I'm going to do when I earn some money is fill her up," Bash looked at his car. "I used to hate the ruddy thing but now I've gained some appreciation for it. At least I heard something over my head on rainy nights."

"You know, this isn't so bad. When you said you had somewhere to sleep than you didn't want to tell me about, I imagined you planking on the beach." Bash looked at her surprised before laughing. It was rare, that laughter, but it was heartwarming.

"Planking?" His laughter died down. "I don't know how you came to _that_ conclusion but it's a better guess than most would have, I'd imagine."

"You know, I left my car at work. I need to go back to get it."

"It's a long walk," Bash reminded her.

"Than you better walk with me."

There was never a way to say "no" to Mary Stuart when she asked. _Everyone who knew me would think I'm whipped_, he thought. Once they were back at the office, Mary went down to the garage to retrieve her car. They drove back to Bash's, getting stopped by traffic along the way. Traffic was one of the things Bash had not missed.

"You don't have to walk me to my car, you know," Bash told her as he and Mary walked side by side. "Aren't I the one who should typically walk you to your car?"

"You already did, remember?"

Bash turned around to say good-bye before a flash went off. And then more than one. He covered his eyes. "Ow! What the hell was that?"

"I should go," Mary knew exactly what those flashes were. Cameras. She just had no idea how they found her. "I'll see you tomorrow Bash!" she went back to her car as quickly as she could and looked around. Those paparazzi were faster than lightning.

And persistent. One would think that there were more important matters to put on the front page of a paper but Friday morning showed signs of a slow day, if the title was anything to go by.

**Mary Stuart's New Beau. ** And a picture to top it off.

She picked up the paper that had been left in front of her door (as well as everyone else's in the building) and skimmed it. Bash having nowhere to live made it much more difficult for gossip columnists to find out anything about him. At least that was what Mary thought until she reached the last paragraph and found his name mentioned- _Sebastian Poitiers, a co-worker of Ms. Stuart, is rumored to be romancing the city's Princess. _

Mary tore up the paper and threw it into the garbage bin. God, how she hated that nickname.

At least she had a connection to another paper in the city. Mrs. Stuart had fought back on rumors of her daughter in the past and would no doubt do so now.

Mary called her mother, glancing nervously at the torn up paper.

Now she just had to find out who sold them out.

**Let the rumors about Bash and Mary commence!**

** Any guesses as to who sold them out to the press?**


End file.
